THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Under  the  Old  Elms 


BY 

MARY  B.  CLAFLIN 

AUTHOR   OF   "  BRAMPTON   SKETCHES,"    "  PERSONAL   REC 
OLLECTIONS   OF   JOHN   G.   WHITTIER," 
"  REAL   HAPPENINGS  " 


NEW  YORK  :  46  EAST  FOURTEENTH  STREET 

THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  COMPANY 
BOSTON:  100  PURCHASE  STREET 


COPYRIGHT,  1895, 
BY  T.  Y.  CROWELL  &  COMPANY. 


TYPOGRAPHY   BY   C.    J.    PETERS   &   SON, 
BOSTON. 


?s 


TO   HIM 
WHOSE    OPEN-HEARTED   HOSPITALITY 

AND    UNSWERVING    LOYALTY 
TO    HOME    AND   FRIENDS   AND    COUNTRY 

MADE    "THE    OLD    ELMS" 
A    DELIGHT    TO   ITS   INMATES, 

THESE    MEMORIES 

OF  HAPPY  DAYS    SPENT    THERE 

ARE    DEDICATED. 


1117G33 


UNDER  THE  OLD  ELMS. 


I. 


UNDER   THE    OLD    ELMS. 

"  As  if  to  music  they  had  grown, 

Stately  and  fair  the  elms  uprise, 
Their  swaying  shadows  earthward  thrown, 

Their  tops  rejoicing  in  the  skies. 
What  life  and  death,  what  love  and  pain, 

What  nights  of  gloom  and  days  of  gold, 
Have  passed  beneath  their  leafy  reign ! 

Yet  still  their  ancient  pride  they  hold, 
Still  tower  o'er  roof  and  slope  and  plain, 

And  link  the  new  years  to  the  old." 

FOR  two  hundred  years  the  elms 
have  been  growing  on  a  grassy  bank 
in  Newton,  Massachusetts.  Harps  for 
the  winds,  they  have  thrilled  to  the 
breath  of  June,  or  bent  in  the  blasts 


Under  the  Old  Elms. 


of  December.  Homes  for  the  birds, 
they  have  rocked  the  nests  of  the 
robin  and  the  oriole,  whose  songs 
echo  through  their  sylvan  paradise. 
The  lawn  they  shadow  is  broad  and 
green,  znd  at  its  farther  side  a  low 
wall  separates  it  from  the  village  street. 
Through  it  there  runs  a  brook  with 
pleasant  ripple  and  flow,  crossing  the 
field  beyond  to  be  lost  in  the  Charles 
River  two  miles  away.  There  grow 
the  earliest  flowers  of  spring,  —  violets, 
anemones,  hepaticas,  to  be  followed 
by  buttercups  and  daisies,  and,  in  their 
season,  by  clusters  of  golden-rod  and 
purple  asters. 

The  place  is  said  to  have  been  a  part 
of  the  Newton  estate  of  Governor  Si 
mon  Bradstreet,  from  whom  it  passed 
eventually  to  the  Fuller  family.  That 
the  region  has  been  long  settled  is 


Under  the  Old  Elms. 


shown  by  the  fact  that  the  homestead 
near  it  has  been  in  the  possession 
of  one  family  for  two  hundred  years. 
Judge  Fuller,  whose  farm  a  century  ago 
comprised  nearly  the  whole  of  what  is 
now  the  village  of  Newtonville,  cul 
tivated  the  fruitful  acres  ;  and  on 
Thanksgiving  Day,  when  his  children 
and  grandchildren  were  gathered  about 
the  ancestral  board,  beneath  the  old 
elms,  he  was  wont  to  say  with  satis 
faction,  "  My  dear  children,  I  hope 
you  realize  that  every  article  of  food 
before  you  was  raised  on  this  farm." 

And  there  was  no  lack  of  variety, 
with  the  plump  turkey,  the  geese, 
ducks,  and  chickens,  the  cranberry  tart 
let,  the  popcorn,  the  sweet  cider,  the 
hickory  nuts  that  grew  by  the  brook, 
and  the  chestnuts  that  ripened  on  the 
hillside. 


Under  the  Old  Elms. 


There  stood  on  a  ridge  near  the 
house  a  group  of  great  chestnut-trees, 
so  ancient  and  storm-beaten  that  prob 
ably  they  were  bearing  fruit  when  the 
Mayflower  sailed  into  Plymouth  har 
bor  in  16200  Of  the  magnificent  elm 
whose  branches  overspread  the  house, 
and  whose  trunk,  because  of  its  un 
usual  size  and  fine  proportions,  has 
been  reverenced  by  his  successors  for 
generations,  he  used  to  tell  this  little 
story  to  his  grandchildren  :  — 

"Before  the  time  of  carriages,  I  was 
riding  to  church,  two  miles  distant, 
one  pleasant  Sunday  morning ;  and  my 
horse,  beginning  like  his  master  to 
feel  the  encroachments  of  age,  was  not 
disposed  to  trot.  Fearing  the  parson 
would  have  finished  his  opening  exer 
cises  before  I  should  reach  the  corner 
of  the  great  square  pew  where  he 


Under  the  Old  Elms. 


always  looked  to  see  me,  and  from 
which  I  was  seldom  absent,  I  alighted 
and  broke  from  a  tree  by  the 
roadside  a  small  elm  sapling,  which 
would  serve  as  an  incentive  to  old 
Dobbin  to  hasten  his  steps.  The 
sapling  I  stuck  in  the  saddle  as  I 
hitched  the  horse  under  the  meeting 
house  shed ;  and  I  brought  it  home 
with  me.  When  I  rode  up  to  the  door, 
your  grandmother,  my  good  wife,  as 
was  her  custom,  stood  waiting  for  me ; 
and  I  said,  'Wife,  I  am  going  to  put 
this  little  sapling  in  the  ground ;  it 
may  shade  our  grandchildren.' ': 

The  sapling,  nine  feet  above  the 
grassy  knoll  on  which  it  stands,  now 
measures  eighteen  feet  in  circumfer 
ence.  Many  years  ago  a  great  tor 
nado  stripped  it  of  its  upper  branches; 
but  this  loss  gave  it  new  life.  To-day 


Under  the  Old  Elms. 


it  is  as  strong  and  vigorous  and  thrifty 
as  it  is  picturesque  and  venerable. 

General  William  Hull,  who  married 
the  daughter  of  Judge  Fuller,  had 
served  with  credit  in  the  Revolution 
ary  War.  In  the  War  of  1812  he 
was  made  governor  of  Michigan,  and 
was  placed  in  charge  of  the  forts  at 
Detroit.  On  account  of  the  very  in 
adequate  garrison  and  the  insufficient 
equipment  in  every  way,  he  felt  com 
pelled  to  surrender  the  fort  to  the 
British,  for  which  he  was  tried  by 
court-martial,  and  condemned  to  be 
shot ;  but  the  president,  in  considera 
tion  of  his  faithful  service  in  the 
Revolutionary  War,  pardoned  him. 
This  surrender  was  made  as  a  human 
itarian  act,  and  at  the  risk  of  forfeit 
ing  his  military  fame.  He  returned, 


Under  the  Old  Elms. 


crestfallen  and  heartsore,  to  spend  the 
remainder  of  his  days  at  the  old  home 
stead. 

General  Hull  was  a  graduate  of 
Yale.  He  was  a  soldier  for  ten  years, 
associating  with  Washington  and  his 
generals.  His  manners  were  a  fine 
mingling  of  those  of  the  soldier,  the 
courtier,  and  the  man  of  the  world. 
He  was  a  scientific  and  successful  far 
mer;  and  when  he  came  back  to  the 
estate  he  was  as  much  at  home  among 
the  farmers  of  Newton  as  he  had  been 
in  other  days  with  generals,  governors, 
and  presidents. 

Mrs.  Hull  was  a  handsome  woman, 
with  the  same  easy  manners  as  her 
husband,  having  associated  with  Mrs. 
Washington,  Mrs.  Knox,  and  other 
ladies.  She  had  a  peculiar  hobby  of 
buying  at  auctions ;  and  the  attic  of 


8  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


the  house  was  a  museum  filled  with  the 
most  remarkable  things,  from  a  church 
window  to  a  lot  of  coffin-plates,  as  use 
less  as  the  green  spectacles  of  Moses 
Primrose.  The  house  was  always  full 
from  attic  to  cellar.  She  always  had 
a  band  of  retainers  of  all  colors  and 
races  in  and  about  the  big  kitchen. 
Among  these  was  a  colored  man  named 
"  Othello,"  called  Tillo  for  short.  His 
father  had  given  him  when  a  boy  to 
Mrs.  Hull  until  he  should  become  of 
age.  When  General  Hull  set  him  at 
liberty  and  gave  him  money  to  start, 
he  went  as  far  as  Watertown  and  then 
returned  to  the  house,  considering  him 
self  one  of  the  family,  and  he  always 
remained  with  them. 

General  Hull's  name  was  always 
spoken  with  respect  and  reverence  by 
the  village  folk,  and  he  was  honored 


Under  the  Old  Elms. 


all  through  the  country-side  for  his 
gentlemanly  bearing  and  his  kindly 
consideration  for  those  about  him.  He 
felt  keenly  the  disgrace  that  followed 
his  action  at  Detroit,  and  mingled  little 
with  the  outside  world,  spending  his 
time  in  cultivating  the  land,  and  intro 
ducing  new  and  improved  methods  of 
agriculture,  and  in  adorning  the  place. 
Wishing  to  irrigate  and  beautify  his 
estate,  he  diverted  the  brook  from  its 
original  course  as  it  ran  from  the  lake 
above,  thus  diminishing  the  water 
which  fed  a  small  mill  lower  down  the 
stream.  This  made  trouble  with  the 
mill,  and  the  mill-owner  appealed  to 
the  law.  General  Hull  took  the  ground 
that  agriculture  was  of  the  first  impor 
tance,  and  that  he  had  a  right  to  use 
the  water  for  agricultural  purposes. 
The  court  decided  that  he  had  the 


io  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


right  to  use  the  water,  but  not  to  in 
terfere  with  the  rights  of  others.  All 
had  equal  rights,  and  the  grinding  of 
the  corn  for  the  use  of  mankind  was 
as  much  a  necessity  as  the  raising  of 
the  corn ;  hence  the  miller  won  his 
case,  and  General  Hull  was  compelled 
to  turn  the  brook  back  to  its  original 
channel.  All  the  laws  of  the  State 
concerning  water-ways  and  mill-privi 
leges  are  based  upon  the  decision  of 
the  courts  at  that  time. 

The  village  grew  slowly  in  General 
Hull's  day.  From  his  home  under  the 
elms  to  the  track  where  the  trains  now 
run  a  hundred  times  a  day,  there  was 
not  a  house ;  and  when  the  whistle  of 
the  engine  was  first  heard  on  the 
Boston  &  Albany  Railroad,  long  after 
General  Hull  had  passed  away,  where 
now  stands  the  picturesque,  vine-clad 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  n 


depot  and  the  populous  village,  there 
was  only  a  flag-station,  called  Hull's 
Crossing.  General  Hull  was  gathered 
to  his  fathers  in  the  year  1825  ;  and  in 
making  some  repairs  in  the  vault  where 
he  was  laid,  it  was  found  that  the 
body  of  Judge  Fuller,  which  had  been 
buried  many  years,  had  become  pet 
rified,  and  was  in  perfect  form  and 
condition,  except  a  slight  change  in 
color.  This  circumstance  was  a  mat 
ter  of  great  interest  to  the  medical 
men  and  scientists  of  the  time. 

During  the  Revolutionary  War,  Gen 
eral  Hull  for  a  time  had  served  under 
La  Fayette,  at  Whitemarsh  and  Mon- 
mouth.  In  1824,  when  the  Marquis 
revisited  this  country,  he  came  to  see 
the  General.  When  the  two  met, 
the  Marquis,  with  French  effusiveness, 
kissed  General  Hull,  and  said  with 


i2  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


feeling,  "  We  have  both  suffered  much 
from  calumny."  General  Hull's  chil 
dren  and  grandchildren  were  presented 
to  the  Marquis ;  and  finally,  with  a  part 
ing  embrace,  the  two  old  comrades-in 
arms  bade  each  other  an  affectionate 
and  last  farewell. 

The  old,  rambling  house  which  had 
stood  for  nearly  a  century  under  the 
elms,  and  where  were  preserved  the 
horns  of  the  deer  that  was  shot  by 
Judge  Fuller  from  the  doorstep  of 
his  mansion,  was  removed  after  Gen 
eral  Hull's  death  to  the  village  that 
was  growing  up  at  Hull's  Crossing ; 
and  there  it  stands,  a  monument  of 
the  early  time  when  it  was  the  centre 
of  all  the  activities  of  the  town.  The 
elderly  people  talk  to  this  day  of  the 
events  which  occurred  in  the  "good  old 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  13 


time"  at  the  Hull  mansion.  Old  Tillo, 
the  colored  man  who  always  attended 
General  Hull,  insisted  that  ghosts  wan 
dered  through  the  house  at  night,  and 
that  the  festivities  of  the  family  were 
often  disturbed  by  uncanny  sights  and 
sounds.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  old 
mansion  was  the  scene  of  many  a  frolic 
when  the  children  and  grandchildren 
of  the  third  and  fourth  generations 
gathered,  and  made  the  rafters  ring 
with  their  mirth;  while  Tillo  used  his 
fiddle  and  his  bow  to  the  tune  of 
"Money-Musk,"  "The  Fisher's  Horn 
pipe,"  and  other  merry  strains. 

The  elms  stood  in  their  lonely  gran 
deur,  and  the  brook  rippled  along  its 
way  undisturbed,  until  the  year  1855, 
when  the  estate  was  purchased  by  the 
present  occupant,  and  the  house  erected 
that  now  stands  on  the  very  spot  from 


14  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


which  the  former  was  removed.  But 
I  sometimes  fancy  the  same  birds  sing 
their  morning  songs  (in  no  other  trees 
do  they  sing  so  sweetly),  the  same 
frogs  croak  their  evening  discords,  the 
same  crickets  chirp  their  friendly, 
cheerful  tunes  as  we  sit  in  the  twi 
light  on  the  doorstep,  where  used  to 
sit  Governor  Bradstreet,  Judge  Ful 
ler,  General  Hull,  and  all  the  goodly 
company  that  called  the  old  mansion 
"home." 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  15 


II. 

DURING  our  occupancy  of  the  place, 
we  were  fortunate  in  having  such  a 
number  of  interesting  people,  many 
of  whom  are  no  longer  on  earth,  to 
sojourn  with  us  under  the  elms,  or  to 
make  brief  visits  there,  that  it  has 
seemed  to  me  a  pleasant  thing  to  re 
cord  some  of  my  memories  of  them. 

Among  the  first  to  help  us  dedicate 
the  new  abode,  came  Mrs.  Stowe  and 
her  brother,  Henry  Ward  Beecher; 
and  as  we  looked  out  on  a  bright  morn 
ing  from  the  doorstep,  over  the  green 
lawn,  they  said,  "The  place  is  worthy 
of  a  name ;  let  us  christen  it  here 
and  now !  "  Various  names  were  sug- 


1 6  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


gested,  but  none  seemed  exactly  to 
fit ;  until  Mrs.  Stowe  exclaimed  with 
enthusiasm,  "  How  magnificent  the  old 
elms  are  !  "  Mr.  Beecher  immediately 
took  up  the  strain,  and  added,  "We 
have  it !  the  place  shall  be  called,  '  The 
Old  Elms  ! '  "  and  so  it  has  been  desig 
nated  for  forty  years. 

The  Reverend  James  Freeman  Clarke 
was  a  grandson  of  General  Hull,  and 
many  hours  of  his  boyhood  were  spent 
under  "The  Old  Elms."  He  was  fa 
miliar  with  every  tree  and  shrub  and 
rock,  and  knew  where  the  orioles  hung 
their  nests,  and  where  were  the  squir 
rels'  hiding-places.  Some  of  the  hap 
piest  hours  of  his  later  life  were  spent 
in  wandering  over  the  paths  of  his 
youth,  and  in  recalling  the  scenes 
where  he  and  his  brother  had  "played 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  17 


soldier"  under  the  direction  of  their 
grandfather,  for  whom  they  had  great 
reverence.  Dr.  Clarke  wrote  an  able 
and  elaborate  vindication  of  his  grand 
father,  which,  I  think,  convinced  every 
fair-minded  person  of  the  wisdom  of 
General  Hull's  course  at  Detroit.  One 
of  the  pleasures  to  which  we  looked 
forward  was  the  annual  visit  of  Dr. 
Clarke.  He  was  full  of  reminiscences  ; 
there  was  an  anecdote  about  every 
nook  and  corner ;  and  there,  as  no 
where  else,  he  could  lay  aside  his  bur 
dens  and  forget  his  cares,  and  revel  in 
the  memories  of  his  happy  childhood. 
There  he  always  brought  the  members 
of  his  family,  who  lived  in  a  distant 
State;  and  they  wandered  up  and 
down  the  brookside  where  joyous  hours 
had  been  spent  in  dropping  the  line  for 
trout  and  pickerel,  or  in  seeking  for 


1 8  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


birds'  nests  in  the  overhanging  trees. 
One  day  there  was  music  under  the 
elms  when  Dr.  Clarke  drove  up  the 
avenue,  and  he  was  asked  if  he  en 
joyed  music.  His  reply  was,  "I  have 
not  much  interest  in  music.  I  think 
if  I  had  one  more  interest  it  would 
have  the  effect  of  the  last  feather  on 
the  camel's  back." 

I  replied,  "  It  has  always  been  a 
regret  to  me  that  I  cannot  sing  or 
make  music  in  any  form." 

"  Neither  can  I,"  said  Dr.  Clarke  ; 
"let  us  shake  hands  and  agree  to 
sing  a  duet  in  heaven." 

Among  the  wise  sayings  in  Tupper's 
"Proverbial  Philosophy"  we  find,  in  his 
opinion,  that  no  family  is  complete 
without  a  grandmother  and  a  baby. 
Providence  supplied  both  to  "  The  Old 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  19 


Elms."  The  grandmother  there  was 
a  typical  old-fashioned  New  England 
woman,  full  of  activity  and  abounding 
energy.  She  kept  up  all  the  old-time 
traditions,  and  told  the  stories  of  old- 
time  life,  and  was  the  delight  of  the 
young  people  who  frequented  the  house. 
Knitting  was  her  favorite  employment ; 
and  nothing  would  induce  her  to  cast 
the  stitches  for  a  new  stocking  on 
Friday,  or  to  start  on  a  journey  on 
that  day,  for  good  luck  never  attended 
anything  that  was  started  on  Friday ; 
and  as  for  sitting  down  to  a  table  with 
thirteen,  she  said  she  would  sooner  be 
drawn  and  quartered,  for  some  one 
would  surely  die  before  the  year  ended 
should  that  be  done.  The  crowing  of 
the  cock,  the  cackling  of  the  hens,  and 
the  spinning  of  a  spider's  web  on  the 
grass,  were  signs  and  omens  of  some- 


20  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


thing  that  was  going  to  happen  for 
good  or  ill.  She  told  the  stories  of 
her  youth  with  so  much  zest  that  the 
children  preferred  her  room  above  all 
others,  and  they  were  never  tired  of 
hearing  of  the  hardships  and  the  frolics 
of  the  days  about  which  she  delighted 
to  talk.  She  would  tell  them  of  riding 
on  a  pillion  to  a  neighboring  town  to 
attend  the  balls,  which  began  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  did  not 
end  until  the  "  break  o'  day  "  the  next 
morning.  The  great  event  of  her  life, 
which  the  children  asked  her  often  to 
repeat,  was  a  journey  which  she  took 
in  her  youth  with  her  parents.  They 
were  six  weeks  travelling  from  Massa 
chusetts  to  the  wilderness  of  Rome 
and  Utica,  "  in  York  State,"  where 
there  were  only  native  Indians  dressed 
in  blankets  and  feathers,  with  scalping- 


Under  the  Old  Elms. 


knives,  and  from  whom  the  children 
had  to  hide  away.  When  she  came 
back  to  Massachusetts  she  married  a 
young  physician  who  afterward  became 
famous ;  and  while  he  followed  his  pro 
fession,  she  lived  her  busy  life,  taking 
care  of  the  farm,  and  entertaining  the 
guests  and  patients  who  came  from  far 
and  near  to  seek  advice  from  the  good 
doctor.  She  was  as  noted  for  her 
thrift  and  energy  in  managing  affairs  as 
he  for  his  skill  in  treating  his  patients. 
Late  in  her  life,  after  he  had  finished 
his  earthly  career,  she  left  the  home  in 
the  small  New  England  village  where 
she  had  lived  all  her  married  life,  and 
came  to  dwell  under  the  old  elms.  On 
her  seventy-seventh  birthday  she  was 
baptized  there,  and  became  a  mem 
ber  of  the  same  church  where  Judge 
Fuller  and  General  Hull  had  wor- 


22  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


shipped  nearly  a  century  before.  She 
remained  with  us,  the  light  and  joy  of 
the  family  circle  at  "The  Old  Elms," 
until  she  was  ninety,  when  she  went 
to  join  the  innumerable  company  with 
whom  she  had  walked  the  journey  of 
life. 

The  first  great  shadow  that  fell  over 
"  The  Old  Elms,"  during  our  residence 
there,  was  the  departure  of  a  dear  little 
boy,  who  for  five  years  had  been  the 
delight  of  all  who  looked  into  his 
luminous  eyes,  and  heard  his  bird-like 
voice.  He  had  said  of  a  little  cousin 
whom  he  saw  lying  in  his  casket  for 
burial,  "That  little  head  will  have  a 
crown  on  it,  and  those  little  hands  will 
have  a  harp  in  them ;  "  so  when  the 
angel  came  a  few  months  later  for  him, 
his  one  thought  of  death  was  that  it 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  23 


would  bring  him  a  harp  and  a  crown. 
His  going  away  changed  the  whole 
current  of  life  there,  and  thenceforth 
every  storm  and  blast  of  winter,  every 
flower  and  shrub  and  blade  of  grass, 
every  zephyr  and  bird-song,  spoke  to 
the  mother's  heart  of  the  blessed  child. 
It  was  in  this  time  of  loss  and  loneli 
ness  that  Dr.  S.  F.  Smith,  whose  home 
was  in  the  neighborhood,  came  as  an 
angel  of  mercy  to  comfort  with  his 
tender  sympathy  the  stricken  hearts. 
Then  began  a  friendship  which  has 
lasted  through  all  the  years.  If  any 
event  of  special  interest  occurred  in 
the  family,  whether  of  joy  or  sorrow, 
some  sympathetic  poem  of  his  was 
sure  to  find  its  way  to  the  hearts  under 
"The  Old  Elms."  One  morning,  after 
a  stormy  night,  came  this  sweet  mes 
sage  :  — 


24  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


"  I  listened  in  the   evening  to  the  sighing  of  the 

gale, 
I  watched  the  heaping  snowdrifts,  and  heard  the 

rattling  hail; 
And  I  thought  with  grateful  spirit,  '  what  a  glorious 

God  is  ours, 
So    mighty    in    the    tempest,    so     gentle     in     the 

flowers ' ! 
And  I  saw  within  the  darkness,  in  the  paths  that 

mortals  tread, 
In  the  land  of  grief  and  parting,  of  the  mourning 

and  the  dead, 
How  God,  with  loving  mercy  softening  the  painful 

blow, 
Leaves  joy  to  gild  our  sorrow,  like  flowers  in  time 

of  snow." 

Dr.  Smith's  visits  at  "  The  Old 
Elms  "  were  always  looked  forward  to 
with  pleasure  by  old  and  young,  for 
he  never  came  without  leaving  some 
agreeable  memory.  One  day  on  look 
ing  at  some  beautiful  flowers,  a  lady 
said,  "Will  there  be  anything  in  heaven 
more  beautiful  ? "  Quick  as  thought 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  25 


the  reply  came,  "  There  everlasting 
Spring  abides,  and  never-withering  flow 
ers."  His  lips  were  always  ready  to 
give  expression  to  the  poetry  which 
was  in  his  heart.  At  a  large  reception 
one  day,  Dr.  Smith's  poetic  fervor  was 
kindled  by  some  expression  of  the  lady 
with  whom  he  was  conversing,  and  all 
at  once  there  was  a  lull  in  the  conver 
sation,  and  an  almost  audible  smile  on 
every  countenance ;  Dr.  Smith  had  be 
come  oblivious  of  his  surroundings, 
and  had  thrown  himself  on  his  knees 
before  the  lady,  and  was  pouring  forth 
some  exquisite  lines  which  had  at  that 
moment  fired  his  soul. 

Dr.  Holmes  once  said  of  him,  "I 
thought  I  was  as  bright  as  Smith 
when  we  were  in  college  together, 
but  Smith  has  gone  far  beyond  me. 
Smith's  'America'  is  sung  on  every 


26  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


mountain-top,  in  mid-ocean,  and  in 
the  darkest  mines ;  and  will  continue 
to  be  sung  as  long  as  our  country 
endures.  It  opens  or  closes  every 
patriotic  festival,  and  is  familiar  in 
every  schoolroom  throughout  the  coun 
try.  Smith's  hymn  is  known  where- 
ever  America  is  known.  To  write  a 
hymn  that  is  sung  with  enthusiasm 
by  seventy  millions  of  people  over 
this  broad  continent,  and  in  every 
land  on  the  globe,  is  what  I  call 
fame." 

Dear  Dr.  Smith!  Of  all  those  of 
his  generation  who  used  to  tread  the 
paths  under  "The  Old  Elms,"  he 
alone  is  left. 

One  pleasant  summer's  day  Mr. 
Whittier,  Mrs.  Stowe,  and  Mrs.  Bailey, 
wife  of  the  editor  of  The  National  Era, 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  27 


the  paper  in  which  "  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin "  was  first  published,  met  at 
"The  Old  Elms."  Was  it  not  a  rare 
trio  ?  —  the  three  people  who  had  more 
to  do  with  the  overthrow  of  slavery 
than  any  other  three  in  the  whole 
country,  —  Mr.  Whittier,  with  his  soul- 
stirring  poems ;  and  Mrs.  Stowe,  whose 
story  has  gone  everywhere  and  been 
translated  into  more  languages  than 
any  other  book  except  the  Bible  ;  and 
Dr.  Bailey,  the  gentlemanly  and  schol 
arly  editor  of  The  National  Era,  to 
whom  belongs  the  credit  of  daring  to 
publish  an  anti-slavery  paper  in  the 
midst  of  a  community  where  slavery 
was  cherished  as  a  divine  institution, 
and  where  the  highest  powers  of  the 
land  were  legislating  to  uphold  and  ex 
tend  the  system  that  cursed  our  fair 
country.  Dr.  Bailey's  home  in  Wash- 


28  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


ington  was  the  social  centre  of  the  lead 
ing  progressive  men  from  every  part 
of  the  country.  At  his  Saturday  even 
ing  receptions  one  was  sure  to  meet 
Chief  Justice  Chase,  Charles  Sumner, 
Henry  Wilson,  Joshua  Giddings,  and 
many  others. 

Mrs.  Stowe  was  often  one  of  the 
company ;  and  in  such  a  gathering 
there  was  much  brilliant  conversation, 
and  many  a  wise  plan  was  formed  for 
the  overthrow  of  slavery.  Sumner 
often  remarked  that  the  lack  of  social 
life  among  the  New  England  people  in 
Washington  was  to  be  deplored  :  "  For," 
he  said,  "more  plans  were  made,  and 
more  political  intrigues  matured,  around 
the  dinner-tables  of  the  Southern 
politicians  than  ever  the  cool-headed, 
hard-working,  honest  Northerners  con 
ceived." 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  29 


Dr.  Bailey's  drawing-room  was  the 
only  place  where  the  leading  pro 
gressive  men  from  the  North  and 
West  could  meet  the  leaders  of  ad 
vanced  thought  in  Congress.  Mr. 
Whittier  was  editor  of  The  National 
Era  with  Dr.  Bailey,  at  the  time 
"Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  was  published. 


30  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


III. 

HENRY  WILSON  spent  much  time  at 
"The  Old  Elms."  It  was  the  rest 
ing-place  where  he  found  congenial 
companionship,  and  where  he  could 
lay  aside  his  harassing  cares.  He 
was  a  hard-working,  fearless  man  in 
Congress ;  and  the  threatening  atti 
tude  of  his  Southern  antagonists  made 
his  position  in  Washington  anything 
but  comfortable. 

Mr.  Sumner  and  Mr.  Wilson  were 
in  perfect  accord  in  politics,  and  were 
close  friends.  Sometimes  when  they 
met  at  "  The  Old  Elms,"  it  was  inter 
esting  to  note  the  contrast  in  the  two 
men  :  Sumner  was  always  stately  and 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  31 


dignified,  while  Mr.  Wilson  was  care 
less  in  his  language  in  ordinary  conver 
sation.  He  often  said,  "  Sumner  is  in 
agony  when  I  rise  to  speak  in  the 
Senate,  for  fear  Massachusetts  will  be 
disgraced  by  my  bad  grammar." 

Mr.  Sumner  said,  "Do  you  think 
Wilson  will  murder  the  king's  English 
when  he  is  in  England  as  he  does 
here  ?  "  But,  strange  to  say,  careless 
as  Mr.  Wilson  was  in  every-day  life,  and 
forgetful  as  he  was  of  social  etiquette 
and  requirements,  he  rarely  made 
a  grammatical  error  in  his  public 
speeches ;  and  he  commanded  as  much 
respect  and  attention  in  the  Senate  as 
any  man  who  lifted  his  voice  in  that 
august  assembly.  He  was  most  enter 
taining  in  conversation ;  and  no  man 
had  a  better  knowledge  of  the  political 
situation  of  the  country  than  he.  It 


32  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


must  be  remembered  that  Mr.  Wilson 
had  no  advantages  of  family,  and,  in  his 
youth,  none  of  society  or  education.1 
He  never  went  to  school,  and  he  had 
only  the  light  of  a  pine  knot  to  read 
by  until  after  he  was  twenty-one  years 
of  age. 

His  twenty-first  birthday  occurred 
on  a  Saturday ;  and  the  hard-fisted 
old  man  with  whom  he  had  spent  most 
of  his  life,  and  whom  he  had  faithfully 
served,  told  him  that  he  could  remain 
over  Sunday  in  his  house  by  pay 
ing  fifty  cents.  Mr.  Sumner  had  had 
every  advantage  of  family  and  position, 
education  and  travel,  and  his  mind  was 
stored  with  knowledge  on  almost  all 
subjects. 

i  Mr.  Wilson  might  have  said  with  Gerald  Massey : 
"  Having  had  to  earn  my  own  dear  bread  by  the  eternal 
cheapening  of  flesh  and  blood  thus  early,  I  never  knew 
what  childhood  was." 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  33 


The  two  senators  met  one  morning 
at  breakfast ;  and  Mr.  Wilson  (having 
just  arrived  from  his  first  and  only  visit 
to  Europe),  displayed  some  lace  he  had 
bought  in  Liverpool  of  a  woman  who 
had  made  the  poor,  unsophisticated 
man  believe  it  was  something  very 
choice.  In  truth,  it  was  the  coarsest 
cotton  lace  that  could  be  made. 

Naturally,  after  this  display,  the  con 
versation  at  the  morning  meal  fell  upon 
lace  ;  and  Mr.  Sumner  discoursed  for  an 
hour  on  the  different  qualities  of  lace, 
—  where  the  finest  might  be  found, 
where  the  choicest  bits  of  old  altar- 
lace  were  preserved,  what  kind  of 
lace  Lady  So-and-So  wore  when  he 
dined  with  her  at  Lord  Palmerston's, 
and  what  was  the  quality  of  Ma 
dame  Thiers's  lace  when  he  dined 
with  the  president  of  the  French  Re- 


34  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


public.  Mr.  Wilson's  lace  disappeared 
from  sight,  and  never  again  came  to 
notice. 

Mr.  Sumner's  great  versatility  was 
shown  in  his  conversation  one  evening 
at  "The  Old  Elms,"  when  he  met  there 
a  club  of  gentlemen  who  had  come  to 
gether  for  the  purpose  of  discussing 
the  merits  of  Jersey  cattle,  the  best 
breeds  to  import,  etc.  I  was  appalled 
when  he  arrived  unexpectedly ;  for  I 
thought  surely  he  could  not  know 
about  cattle,  or  have  any  interest  in 
the  purposes  for  which  the  club  had 
come  together.  What  was  my  surprise 
to  find  that  he  was  conversant  with  all 
the  breeds  of  cattle  in  Europe,  that  he 
knew  about  the  methods  of  raising  and 
treating  them,  and  which  were  consid 
ered  the  most  profitable  for  importa 
tion,  and  much  concerning  the  different 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  35 


brands  of  cheese  and  of  butter.    He  en 
tertained  the  club  the  whole  evening. 

Some  of  the  gentlemen  were  politi 
cally  opposed  to  Mr.  Sumner ;  but  at 
the  close  of  the  evening  they  were  all 
ready  to  vote  for  him  for  President  of 
the  United  States.  I  remember  a  de 
lightful  visit  from  Mr.  Sumner,  when 
he  spent  most  of  the  time  describing 
President  Thiers's  manner  of  entertain 
ing  his  guests.  He  told  every  smallest 
detail, — the  arrangement  of  the  table; 
who  were  the  guests ;  how  they  were 
seated  ;  how  Madame  Thiers  conversed, 
and  how  courteous  her  husband's  man 
ner  was  toward  her ;  and  how  the  Pres 
ident  at  the  close  of  the  dinner  gathered 
his  guests  around  him  as  he  sat  upon 
the  sofa  in  the  salon,  and  rehearsed  the 
speech  he  was  to  make  the  next  day 
in  the  French  Assembly.  "  Thus,"  said 


36  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


Mr.  Sumner,  "  taking  advantage  of  any 
suggestion  or  criticism  that  might  be 
made  before  he  gave  the  speech  to  the 
public." 

Mr.  Sumner  remarked  one  morning, 
when  he  was  full  of  reminiscences,  "  I 
can  never  forget  how  very  courteous 
and  cordial  Lord  Palmerston  was  to  me 
personally,  and  how  extremely  cold  and 
unresponsive  he  was  to  my  subject.  I 
called  on  him  (it  was  at  the  beginning 
of  the  war)  for  the  purpose  of  explain 
ing  our  position  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  attitude  of  the  North  toward 
the  South.  He  listened  coldly,  and 
my  remarks  were  entirely  unavailing. 
It  was  with  him  as  with  most  English 
statesmen,  though  there  were  a  few 
noble  exceptions  —  Cobden  was  a  firm 
friend  of  the  North,  as  was  John  Bright, 
all  through  our  contest  with  the  South. 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  37 


A  friend  on  his  return  from  England 
gave  us  an  account  of  his  interview 
with  Cobden.  He  said,  "I  called  one 
morning  and  asked  Mr.  Cobden  if  he 
were  sufficiently  interested  in  the  af 
fairs  of  our  country  to  give  me  a 
little  time.  Cobden  replied,  'Inter 
ested,  Sir !  My  God,  I  cannot  sleep 
at  night  for  interest ! ' ' 

Mr.  Sumner  believed  that  unity  and 
good-will  among  fellow-citizens  could 
only  be  assured  through  oblivion  of 
past  differences  ;  and  to  this  end  he  in 
troduced  the  following  resolutions  in 
Congress  :  — 

Be  it  enacted,  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Re 
presentatives  of  the  United  States  in  Con 
gress  assembled :  — 
That  the  names  of  battles  with  fellow-citizens 

shall  not  be  contained  in  the  Army  Registers  or 

placed  on  the  regimental  colors  of  the  United 

States. 


38  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


For  his  action  in  this  regard  he  was 
severely  criticised,  and  received  a  vote 
of  censure  from  the  Legislature  of 
Massachusetts.  I  well  remember,  in 
an  after-visit,  his  great  distress,  as  he 
paced  the  room,  turning  back  his 
massive  locks  and  wiping  the  perspira 
tion  from  his  brow,  saying,  "  Have  you 
any  reason  to  think  Massachusetts 
will  ever  rescind  that  vote  ? "  News 
that  the  Legislature  had  decided  to 
blot  out  the  obnoxious  vote  which  had 
caused  him  and  his  friends  so  much 
pain,  came  to  him  just  before  his 
death.  He  had  exclaimed  in  his  agony, 
"When  I  am  dead  justice  will  not  be 
denied  me."  It  was  a  matter  of  grati 
tude  to  his  friends  that  he  had  the 
satisfaction  of  knowing  justice  was 
done  to  him  by  his  beloved  State  while 
he  yet  lived.  His  terrible  physical 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  39 


suffering  after  the  brutal  attack  of 
Brooks  in  the  Senate  Chamber  did  not 
equal  his  mental  torture  when  the  vote 
of  censure  was  passed  upon  him  by  the 
Massachusetts  legislature.  This  was 
the  bitterest  trial  of  his  political  life. 

Mr.  Wilson  had  given  his  whole 
thought  and  energy  to  the  condition 
of  the  country,  and,  first  of  all,  to 
the  overthrow  of  slavery ;  and  when 
he  became  an  invalid  (he  was  stricken 
with  paralysis  soon  after  the  close  of 
the  war),  his  habits  of  life  were  so  fixed 
and  had  taken  such  strong  hold  upon 
him  that  it  was  beyond  the  power  of 
those  who  sought  to  amuse  him  to  in 
terest  him  in  a  game  or  a  story.  He 
could  not  find  diversion  except  in  his 
chosen  line,  and  his  physicians  advised 
him  to  put  aside  all  work.  He  wished 


40  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


to  try  every  school  of  medicine,  and 
not  a  quack  advertisement  escaped  his 
notice.  Going  one  day  to  a  person 
who  had  advertised  to  cure  every  dis 
ease  that  flesh  is  heir  to,  he  came  back 
to  the  family  greatly  amused,  saying,  — 
"  My  new  doctor  said,  *  There  was 
a  man  in  to  see  me  yesterday  who 
told  me  you  was  of  some  consequence, 
and  I  must  cure  you ;  now  I  want  to 
know  who  you  be,  and  where  you  put 
up.  You  ought  to  have  very  nourish 
ing  provender.1  I  told  the  doctor  I 
had  been  stopping  with  Governor  Claf- 
lin.  '  Well,  now,'  said  he,  '  I  want  to 
know  if  you  get  enough  to  eat  there. 
You  must  have  good,  wholesome  food, 
and  enough  of  it.  I've  been  to  them 
big  houses  where  I  couldn't  get  half 
enough  to  eat ;  they  put  on  little 
messes,  and  not  enough  of  anything 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  41 


to  satisfy  a  man.  Such  kind  of  liv 
ing,  I  tell  you,  won't  answer  for 
you.' " 

On  Mr.  Wilson's  return  from  the 
doctor's  that  day  we  were  reminded 
of  Pope's  definition  of  fame:  — 

"What's  fame? 

A  fancied  life  in  others'  breath, 
A  thing  beyond  us  e'en  before  our  death." 

This  "doctor"  experimented  for  a 
while  to  no  purpose,  and  Mr.  Wilson 
looked  for  the  next  quack,  often  tak 
ing  the  nostrums  of  three  or  four  at 
a  time. 

During  Mr.  Wilson's  illness  a  great 
number  of  letters  were  received  from 
every  part  of  the  country,  showing 
the  high  esteem  in  which  he  was 
held  by  people  of  every  shade  of  poli 
tics,  and  by  men  of  the  South  whom 
he  had  bitterly  opposed  in  the  Senate ; 


42  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


even  by  those  who  had  threatened  his 
life.  When  he  was  stricken,  and  felt 
that  he  was  face  to  face  with  death, 
almost  his  first  coherent  remark  was, 
"  I  have  no  ill-will  against  any  man, 
and  I  don't  know  that  any  one  has 
any  ill-will  toward  me."  As  he  rallied 
from  the  first  attack,  the  unrest  which 
usually  follows  in  such  cases  took  pos 
session  of  him,  and  it  was  touching 
then  to  see  Mr.  Sumner's  tender  in 
terest  in  him.  He  wrote  repeatedly 
from  the  Senate  Chamber  to  the 
friends  at  "The  Old  Elms,"  — "Take 
good  care  of  Wilson.  Watch  him,  and 
do  not  let  him  expose  himself."  But 
the  friends  who  would  gladly  have 
served  him  found  themselves  helpless. 
It  was  difficult  to  keep  him  from  the 
hands  of  charlatans  and  quacks,  and 
it  was  pathetic  to  see  him  wandering 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  43 


from  place  to  place  in  search  of  rest. 
When  Mr.  Sumner  was  seized  with  his 
last  illness,  Mr.  Wilson  started  for 
Washington  as  soon  as  he  heard  the 
news.  Entirely  unfit  for  such  a  jour 
ney,  his  friends  were  obliged  to  take 
him,  almost  by  force,  back  to  his  home. 

Henry  Wilson  sleeps  in  the  quiet 
burial  ground  at  Natick;  but  his 
works  do  follow  him. 

Mr.  Whittier's  noble  tribute  to  him 
is  so  just  and  true  that  I  cannot  for 
bear  quoting  some  of  its  stanzas  :  — 

"The  lowliest  born  of  all  the  land, 
He  wrung  from  Fate's  reluctant  hand 

The  gifts  which  happier  boyhood  claims; 
And,  tasting  on  a  thankless  soil 
The  bitter  bread  of  unpaid  toil, 

He  fed  his  soul  with  noble  aims. 

By  the  low  hearth-fire's  fitful  blaze 
He  read  of  old  heroic  days, 

The  sage's  thought,  the  patriot's  speech: 


44  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


Unhelped,  alone,  himself  he  taught; 
His  school,  the  craft  at  which  he  wrought, 
His  lore,  the  book  within  his  reach. 

He  felt  his  country's  need;  he  knew 
The  work  her  children  had  to  do; 

And  when,  at  last,  he  heard  the  call 
In  her  behalf  to  serve  and  dare, 
Beside  his  senatorial  chair 

He  stood  the  unquestioned  peer  of  all. 

How  wise,  how  brave  he  was,  how  well 
He  bore  himself,  let  history  tell. 

While  waves  our  flag  o'er  land  and  sea 
No  black  thread  in  its  warp  or  weft ! 
He  found  dissevered  states  ;  he  left 

A  grateful  nation  strong  and  free!" 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  45 


IV. 

MRS.  STOWE  and  Mr.  Whittier  were 
congenial  spirits,  and  their  favorite 
amusement  when  they  chanced  to  be 
together  at  "  The  Old  Elms  "  was  tell 
ing  ghost  stories.  The  members  of  the 
family,  and  whatever  other  guests  were 
present,  were  ready  to  throw  aside 
every  occupation  and  pastime  to  listen 
to  their  marvellous  tales  of  ghosts  and 
goblins.  Those  days  will  live  in  the 
memory  of  all  who  were  fortunate 
enough  to  hear  from  their  lips  stories 
of  rappings  and  ghostly  visitations,  and 
of  music  from  the  spirit  land.  Mr. 
Whittier  would  smite  his  knee,  as  was 
his  custom  when  anything  pleased  him, 


46  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


and  Mrs.  Stowe's  merry  laugh  would 
echo  through  the  house.  They  would 
sit  up  till  the  small  hours  of  the  morn 
ing,  and  until  the  lights  burned  blue, 
to  rehearse  the  most  unlikely  tales,  as 
if  they  believed  them  all. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  often  met  his 
sister,  Mrs.  Stowe,  at  "The  Old  Elms;" 
and  many  a  battle  they  fought  on  the 
croquet  ground  in  the  shade  of  the 
trees.  They  would  play  in  a  pouring 
rain,  and  when  the  darkness  of  night 
overtook  them  so  that  lanterns  were 
necessary  to  enable  them  to  see  the 
wickets  and  the  balls ;  often  becoming 
so  absorbed  in  their  game  that  they 
were  unmindful  of  everything  around 
them.  On  one  occasion  an  old  friend 
of  their  father's  called,  and  expressed 
a  great  desire  to  see  the  children  of 
his  revered  friend,  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher. 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  47 


A  message  was  sent  to  the  field  of 
contest,  informing  them  that  their 
father's  friend  desired  to  see  them. 
They  paid  no  attention  to  the  call ;  and 
soon  a  second  message  was  sent,  beg 
ging  them  to  throw  aside  their  mallets 
and  come  in.  Meanwhile,  the  hostess 
talked  against  time,  trying  to  divert 
the  aged  visitor  as  best  she  could,  until 
a  third  request  was  sent,  with  like  re 
sult  ;  when  the  gentleman  reluctantly 
rose,  saying  his  train  would  be  soon 
due,  and  he  should  be  obliged  to  take 
his  leave.  Soon  after  he  left,  the  two 
culprits  came  slowly  up  the  path  to  the 
piazza.,  wiping  their  faces,  and  arguing 
briskly  about  the  position  of  the  balls ; 
each  contending  vigorously  that  he  or 
she  would  have  obtained  the  victory  if 
the  other  had  not  hit  the  ball  so-and-so. 

An  older  sister  of  Mrs.  Stowe's,  who 


48  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


was  sitting  with  the  family  on  the 
piazza,  and  who  was  more  practical, 
and  less  inclined  to  lose  herself  in  cro 
quet  and  billiards,  remarked  as  Mrs. 
Stowe  approached,  "  Sister  Hattie,  I 
am  ashamed  of  you  ;  I  never  was  so 
provoked  with  you  in  my  life."  In 
the  meekest  possible  tone,  Mrs.  Stowe 
said,  "  Why,  Sister  Mary,  what  have 
I  done  ?  "  Sister  Mary's  eyes  snapped 
when  she  said,  "  You  have  insulted  our 
father's  old  friend  and  Mrs.  C. ;  and 
we  have  sat  in  tortures,  racking  our 
brains  to  cover  up  your  rudeness  and 
brother  Henry's ;  and  finally  the  old 
man  departed,  grieved  and  injured  with 
the  conduct  of  the  revered  Dr.  Beech- 
er's  recreant  offspring." 

"  I  am  so  sorry,  sister  Mary ;  I 
would  not  for  the  world  injure  any 
body's  feelings ;  do  you  really  think 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  49 


pa's  friend  felt  aggrieved  ?  "  "  Brother 
Henry  "  hid  himself  behind  a  newspa 
per,  leaving  Mrs.  Stowe  to  fight  out  the 
battle,  and  soothed  sister  Mary's  feel 
ings,  by  reminding  her  that  she  looked 
very  handsome  when  she  was  mad. 

Mrs.  Stowe  had  the  power  of  with 
drawing  from  everything  except  the 
one  thing  on  her  mind  which  wholly 
engrossed  her  for  the  time  being.  She 
could  not  be  diverted  from  the  idea 
that  had  taken  possession  of  her.  Her 
spirit  seemed  to  leave  the  body  in  a 
most  remarkable  way.  I  have  known 
her  to  wander  from  room  to  room, 
humming  softly  to  herself,  seeming  un 
conscious  of  everything  about  her,  as 
if  she  were  in  a  trance ;  and  then,  as 
though  she  had  been  communing  with 
some  spirit  from  another  sphere,  she 
would  burst  into  eloquent  language,  a 


50  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


divine  rhapsody,  and  entrance  those 
around  her  with  what  she  had  seen  and 
heard.  She  lived  apparently  more  in 
the  upper  air  than  in  a  world  of  action ; 
and  she  always  said,  "I  did  not  write 
*  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  ; '  I  was  only  the 
instrument  through  which  it  was  given 
to  the  world." 

Her  conversations  with  her  brother 
at  the  hour  of  morning  devotions  were 
inspiring  beyond  any  thing  I  have  ever 
listened  to.  On  one  occasion,  when 
she  was  soaring  in  the  clouds,  she 
all  at  once  burst  into  an  ecstasy 
and  said,  "  When  I  laid  my  head 
upon  my  pillow  last  night,  one  thought 
took  possession  of  me,  and  I  could 
not  close  my  eyes  through  the  long 
night  watches.  It  was  this,  'Jesus 
Christ  has  lived  and  died,  and  what  is 
all  the  world  beside?'"  And  then, 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  51 


as  if   inspired,  she  talked  of  heavenly 
sights  and  sounds. 

Mrs.  Stowe  had  an  enthusiastic  love 
for  flowers,  and  a  marvellous  gift  for 
reproducing  them.  When  she  was 
visiting  "The  Old  Elms"  she  ran  out 
one  morning  regardless  of  the  pouring 
rain,  and  gathered  a  large  bunch  of 
nasturtiums,  which  she  put  so  deftly 
upon  canvas  that  we  hold  the  picture 
as  one  of  our  choicest  treasures.  She 
loved  the  birds  and  the  animals  about 
the  place  ;  and  on  one  occasion  when 
she  was  coming  to  visit  me,  she  wrote 
that  she  wished  me  to  be  prepared 
to  receive  a  cat  which  she  should 
bring  with  her.  She  was  on  her  way 
from  Concord ;  and  she  said  the  cat 
had  been  educated  in  Concord,  and 
that  it  had  Emersonian  tendencies, 
and  she  hoped,  therefore,  that  it 


52  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


would  be  hospitably  received  and  en 
tertained. 

The  clergymen  of  the  neighborhood 
were  accustomed  to  meet  in  the  bowl 
ing-alley,  and  the  excitement  often  ran 
high  between  the  Wesleyans  on  the 
one  side  and  the  Calvinists  on  the 
other.  There  was,  however,  no  dis 
tinction  of  persons  or  creeds  at  "The 
Old  Elms,"  and  the  balls  rolled  as  im 
partially  for  the  Calvinists  as  they  did 
for  the  Wesleyans. 

On  an  occasion  when  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  was  visiting  "The  Old  Elms," 
I  thought,  it  would  be  a  pleasant 
surprise  to  the  distinguished  preacher 
if  I  invited  some  of  the  clergy  in 
our  neighborhood  to  meet  him ;  but 
it  proved  to  be  an  inauspicious  time. 
The  preachers  came,  but  the  lion  of 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  53 


the  evening  was  not  disposed  to  roar. 
He  retired  to  the  library,  where  some 
of  the  bolder  clergy  followed  him,  one 
of  whom  ventured  to  ask  him  what  was 
his  method  of  preparing  his  sermons. 
Mr.  Beecher's  reply  almost  upset  the 
poor  country  divine,  who  spent  much 
of  the  week  on  his  sermons,  and  was 
quite  used  up  by  Saturday  night,  as 
he  said,  "  I  prepare  my  morning  ser 
mon  Sunday  morning  after  breakfast, 
and  my  evening  sermon  after  dinner." 
One  of  the  clergy,  somewhat  at  a 
loss  for  conversation,  broke  out  sud 
denly  with  this  question,  which  would 
have  been  proper  enough  in  the  pri 
vacy  of  his  own  study,  "  Brother, 
what  is  the  state  of  religion  in  your 
church?"  The  "brother"  was  indis 
posed  to  discuss  the  state  of  religion 
in  his  church  then  and  there,  and 


54  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


at  once  turned  the  conversation  to 
flowers  and  trees,  in  which  he  always 
delighted. 

Mr.  Beecher,  the  most  genial  and 
sympathetic  of  men,  had  moods  in 
which  he  was  withdrawn  from  all 
about  him,  and  as  inaccessible  as  an 
unsealed  mountain  peak.  Unfortunate, 
then,  were  those  who  through  igno 
rance  or  daring  presumed  to  intrude 
upon  him. 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  55 


V. 

MRS.  STOWE  loved  "  The  Old  Elms  ; " 
and  when  Messrs.  Houghton  and  Mif- 
flin,  her  publishers,  proposed  celebrat 
ing  her  seventieth  birthday,  she 
thought  it  would  be  pleasant  to  have 
the  fete  on  the  lawn  there.  Accord 
ingly  on  the  1 2th  of  June,  1882,  a  goodly 
company  assembled  to  honor  the  mod 
est  woman,  who  had  become  famous 
among  all  English-speaking  people  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  A  large 
tent  was  spread  on  the  lawn  under 
the  elms,  and  never  did  a  more  nota 
ble  company  gather  together.  Every 
one  who  had  written  a  book  or  sung  a 
song:  came  to  do  her  homage.  The  sun 


56  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


never  shone  more  brightly,  the  birds 
piped  their  sweetest  notes,  and  the  old 
elms  swayed  and  nodded  in  the  gentle 
breeze,  as  if  to  do  their  part  in  honor 
ing  her. 

This  was  the  neighborhood  of  the 
scenes  described  in  "  Old-Town  Folks  ;  " 
and  the  elms  under  whose  shade  the 
gathering  was  held  might  have  whis 
pered  much  about  the  quaint  contem 
poraries  of  Sam  Lawson,  could  they 
have  told  what  had  passed  beneath 
them. 

The  place  of  Mrs.  Stowe  in  American 
letters  was  significantly  indicated  in  the 
poems  offered  and  the  speeches  made 
during  these  birthday  exercises.  The 
distinction  of  having  given  that  power 
ful  book,  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  to  the 
world  was  never  more  charmingly  em 
phasized  than  on  that  memorable  after- 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  57 


noon.  A  ray  of  sunlight  that  came 
in  through  an  opening  in  the  tent  il 
lumined  dear  Mr.  Whittier's  face  as  he 
sat  on  the  platform,  and  the  people 
waited  breathlessly  to  hear  what  he 
had  to  say,  when  all  at  once  he  stole 
silently  out  and  left  another  to  read 
his  exquisite  poem :  — 

"Thrice  welcome  from  the  land  of  flowers 
And  golden-fruited  orange  bowers 
To  this  sweet,  green-turfed  June  of  ours ! 
To  her,  who  in  our  evil  time 
Dragged  into  light  the  nation's  crime, 
With  strength  beyond  the  strength  of  men, 
And,  mightier  than  their  sword,  her  pen; 
To  her  who  world-wide  entrance  gave 
To  the  log  cabin  of  the  slave, 
Made  all  his  wrongs  and  sorrows  known, 
And  all  earth's  languages  his  own !  — 
Welcome  from  each  and  all  to  her 
Whose  Wooing  of  the  Minister 
Revealed  the  warm  heart  of  the  man 
Beneath  the  creed-bound  Puritan, 
And  taught  the  kinship  of  the  love 
Of  man  below  and  God  above. 


£8  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


To  her,  whose  vigorous  pencil  strokes 
Sketched  into  life  her  Oldtown  Folks; 
Whose  fireside  stories,  grave  or  gay, 
In  quaint  Sam  Lawson's  vagrant  way,  ; 
With  old  New  England's  flavor  rife, 
Waifs  from  her  rude  idyllic  life, 
Are  racy  as  the  legends  old 
By  Chaucer  or  Boccaccio  told. 

Ah !  dearer  than  the  praise  that  stirs 

The  air  to-day,  our  love  is  hers ! 

She  needs  no  guarantee  of  fame 

Whose  own  is  linked  with  Freedom's  name. 

Long  ages  after  ours  shall  keep 

Her  memory  living  while  we  sleep; 

The  waves  that  wash  our  gray  coast  lines, 

The  winds  that  rock  the  Southern  pines, 

Shall  sing  of  her;  the  unending  years 

Shall  tell  her  tale  in  unborn  ears. 

And  when,  with  sins  and  follies  past, 

Are  numbered  color-hate  and  caste, 

White,  black,  and  red  shall  own  as  one, 

The  noblest  work  by  woman  done." 

And  then  came  Dr.  Holmes,  who  was 
greeted  with  a  storm  of  applause,  his 
face  beaming  with  inimitable  humor,  in 
perfect  contrast  with  the  calm,  sober 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  59 


face  of  Mr.  Whittier.      His  poem  was 
full  of  witty  allusions. 

If  every  tongue  that  speaks  her  praise 
For  whom  I  shape  my  tinkling  phrase 

Were  summoned  to  the  table, 
The  vocal  chorus  that  would  meet 
Of  mingling  accents  harsh  or  sweet 
From  every  land  and  tribe  would  beat 

The  polyglots  of  Babel. 

Know  her  !     Who  knows  not  Uncle  Tom 
And  her  he  learned  his  gospel  from 

Has  never  heard  of  Moses; 
Full  well  the  brave  black  hand  we  know 
That  gave  to  freedom's  grasp  the  hoe 
That  killed  the  weed  that  used  to  grow 

Among  the  Southern  roses. 

Sister,  the  holy  maid  does  well 

Who  counts  her  beads  in  convent  cell, 

Where  pale  devotion  lingers; 
But  she  who  serves  the  sufferer's  needs, 
Whose  prayers  are  spelt  in  loving  deeds, 
May  trust  the  Lord  will  count  her  beads 

As  well  as  human  fingers. 

When  Truth  herself  was  Slavery's  slave, 
Thy  hand  the  prisoned  suppliant  gave 
The  rainbow  wings  of  fiction, 


60  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


And  Truth,  who  soared,  descends  to-day 
Bearing  an  angel's  wreath  away, 
Its  lilies  at  thy  feet  to  lay 

With  heaven's  own  benediction. 


To  close  the  festivities  Mrs.  Stowe 
came  forward,  the  company  rising  and 
remaining  standing  in  her  honor,  and 
applauding  her  most  heartily.  The 
sweet,  gentle  face,  crowned  with  its 
locks  of  silver,  the  slightly  bowed  form 
trembling  with  the  joy  and  emotion  of 
this  supreme  moment,  the  group  of 
expectant,  loving  faces  around  and 
about  her,  made  a  sight  never  to  be 
forgotten.  Mrs.  Stowe  closed  her  lit 
tle  speech  by  telling  a  story  of  an  old 
colored  man  whom  she  knew  at  the 
South,  who  "  owned  an  orange  grove 
and  a  house,  and  heads  of  cattle  and 
heads  of  horses,  and  heads  of  hens,  and 
ten  head  of  children,"  as  he  expressed 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  61 


it ;  and    "  they  are   all   his  own,"  said 
Mrs.  Stowe,  in  her  enthusiastic  way. 

The  whole  company  joined  in  Eliza 
beth  Stuart  Phelps's  wish  for  Mrs. 
Stowe  :  — 

"  Oh,  wait  to  make  her  blessed,  happy  world, 

To  which  she  looketh  onward  ardently; 
Lie  distant,  distant  far,  ye  streets  of  gold, 

Where  up  and  down  light-hearted  spirits  walk 
And  wonder  that  they  stay  so  long  away; 

Be  patient  for  her  coming  from  our  skies 
Who  will  love  Heaven  better  keeping  her, 

This  only  ask  we :  when  from  power  to  praise 
She  moves  and  when  from  peace  to  joy,  be  hers 

To  know  she  hath  the  life  eternal,  since 
Her  own  heart's  dearest  wish  did  meet  her  there  !  " 

The  band  discoursed  sweet  music ; 
Mrs.  Humphrey  Allen's  voice  mingled 
with  the  bird-songs  ;  and  the  perfect  day 
ended  in  a  glorious  sunset. 

It  was  truly  an  interesting  spectacle 
to  see  standing  about  in  groups  under 
the  elms,  Whittier,  Dr.  Holmes,  Mr. 


62  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


and  Mrs.  E.  P.  Whipple,  T.  B.  Aldrich, 
Louise  Chandler  Moulton,  Dr.  Lyman 
Abbott,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  T.  Fields, 
A.  Bronson  Alcott,  Elizabeth  Stuart 
Phelps,  Lucy  Larcom,  Henry  Ward 
Beecher,  Edward  Beecher,  Dr.  Stowe, 
and  dear  Mrs.  Stowe,  the  person  in 
all  the  distinguished  company  most 
unconscious  of  fame  and  modest  in  her 
bearing. 

On  the  evening  before  the  ffae  a 
large  barge  filled  with  pretty  girls  from 
Wellesley  College  drove  up  the  avenue, 
and  alighted  under  the  window  where 
Mrs.  Stowe  was  sitting,  and  burst  into 
sweet  and  heartfelt  song,  so  that  all  the 
acres  echoed  with  their  music. 

The  only  unfavorable  criticism  con 
cerning  Mrs.  Stowe's  fete  was  from 
the  pen  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  her 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  63 


brother.  He  wrote  :  "  Mrs.  Stowe  s  cel 
ebration  was  very  good ;  but  one 
marked  exception  is  to  be  regretted. 
Not  a  colored  man  or  woman  was 
there !  Were  none  invited  ?  .  .  .  Would 
it  not  have  been  worthy  of  the  occasion 
if  the  Jubilee  Singers  could  have  been 
present,  who  were  born  in  slavery,  but 
who  turned  musical  notes  into  bricks, 
and  built  one  of  the  noblest  colleges  in 
the  land  —  Fiske  University,  a  castle 
built  in  the  air  and  ot  the  air  ! " 

Not  long  after  the  fete  the  Jubilee 
Singers  came  to  "  The  Old  Elms,"  and 
entertained  us  with  their  songs  and 
dances  ;  they  came  with  beaming  faces 
and  merry  voices.  When  the  singers 
left  the  house  I  expressed  the  hope  that 
they  had  enjoyed  the  afternoon  as 
much  as  I  had.  One  tall,  very  black 
man,  with  his  mouth  stretched  from  ear 


64  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


to  ear,  and  his  white  teeth  shining  al 
most  across  the  lawn,  replied,  "Well,  I 
reckon  I  could  beat  ye  on  that." 

To  look  upon  the  company  of  well- 
dressed,  intelligent  men  and  women, 
who  had  been  a  few  months  before  re 
garded  as  chattels,  bought  and  sold, 
with  no  right  to  husband  or  wife  or 
children,  or  even  to  their  own  soul, — 
to  see  them  contented  and  happy,  to 
listen  to  their  pleasant  voices  and 
watch  their  graceful  rhythmic  motions, 
as  they  danced  upon  the  lawn ;  all  this 
filled  our  hearts  with  joy,  and  made  us 
realize  that  the  long,  dreadful  months 
we  had  passed  through  during  the  war, 
when  every  home  was  turned  into  a 
hospital  or  a  packing-house  for  the  sol 
diers,  had  not  been  in  vain.  The  hall 
at  "The  Old  Elms  "  was  never  without 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  65 

boxes  or  barrels  waiting  to  be  filled 
with  dainties  for  the  soldiers  ;  with  jel 
lies,  sweetmeats,  under-clothing,  fans, 
books,  anything  and  everything  that 
could  be  thought  of  for  their  comfort. 
No  man  or  woman  or  child  crossed  the 
threshold  without  being  reminded,  that 
there  was  room  for  more  in  the  waiting 
boxes,  in  those  days  when  every  house 
was  a  house  of  mourning,  or  of  anxious 
expectancy  about  some  absent  member. 


66  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


VI. 

CHIEF  JUSTICE  CHASE  was  one  of 
the  most  charming  visitors  at  "  The 
Old  Elms."  He 'was  full  of  inter 
est  in  everything  that  pertained  to 
the  welfare  of  the  country,  and  he 
talked  with  enthusiastic  knowledge  up 
on  every  question  that  was  before  the 
people ;  yet  he  was  always  ready  to 
join  in  the  sports  of  the  young  people, 
at  the  bowling-alley,  or  on  the  croquet 
ground.  He  was  a  man  of  magnifi 
cent  proportions,  tall,  and  elegant  in 
his  bearing.  When  he  was  visiting 
us  at  one  time,  we  invited  Governor 
Bullock,  who  was  then  the  executive 
of  the  State,  to  dine  with  him.  As  I 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  67 


offered  my  escort  to  the  chief  justice 
to  go  to  the  dining-room,  taking  it 
for  granted  that  the  chief  justice  of 
the  United  States  was  a  more  impor 
tant  personage  than  a  governor  of  a 
State,  he  whispered  in  my  ear,  "  You 
have  made  a  mistake ;  the  governor 
is  always  sovereign  in  his  own  State ; 
you  should  have  escorted  him  to  the 
dining-room." 

Of  course  I  was  grateful  to  my  dis 
tinguished  guest,  and  chagrined  at  my 
own  ignorance.  The  order  of  seating 
people  at  the  dinner-table  is  a  matter 
of  great  importance,  I  learned,  among 
titled  and  official  people.  I  once  knew 
a  senator  in  Washington  who  declined 
to  go  to  the  table  because  he  was  not 
given  just  the  place  he  fancied  his 
position  entitled  him  to ;  and  another, 
who  took  the  seat  allotted  him,  but 


68  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


would    not    speak   through    the  entire 
dinner. 

Mrs.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  whose 
husband  represented  us  at  the  Court 
of  St.  James  at  a  critical  time  during 
the  war,  when  we  were  severely  criti 
cised  and  snubbed,  said  to  me,  after 
her  return  from  London,  "  I  never  took 
a  step,  I  never  entered  a  room,  without 
inquiring  of  some  one  who  knew  the 
etiquette  of  court  circles ;  for  I  wished 
my  country  should  not  be  disgraced 
by  any  mistake  of  mine."  Mrs.  Adams 
was  "  to  the  manner  born ; "  she  had 
had  every  advantage  of  wealth  and  cul 
ture,  of  education  and  travel,  and  knew 
the  importance  of  proper  attention  to 
form  and  ceremony  in  official  circles. 

John  Bright  was  held  in  such  high 
estimation  by  all  patriots  in  our  coun- 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  69 


try  who  were  laboring  for  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery,  and  was  so  in  accord 
with  us  at  the  North  during  our  strug 
gles  for  emancipation,  often  express 
ing  a  wish  to  meet  the  leaders  in  the 
conflict,  especially  our  beloved  Whit- 
tier,  that  we  wished  in  every  possible 
way  to  show  our  appreciation  of  his 
sympathy,  and  of  his  actual  services 
in  our  behalf  in  England,  where  we 
had  little  affinity  or  even  recognition. 
John  Bright  himself  could  not  be  per 
suaded  to  cross  the  ocean,  greatly  as 
he  desired  to  see  our  country  of  hope 
and  promise  ;  but  his  eldest  son  (now 
a  member  of  Parliament)  came  in  his 
stead,  and  we  were  glad  to  do  him 
honor  for  his  father's  sake. 

He  accepted  our  invitation  to  visit 
"The  Old  Elms,"  and  a  right  merry 
time  we  had  of  it.  It  so  happened 


70  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


there  were  a  number  of  young  ladies 
at  the  house ;  and  young  Bright,  being 
on  pleasure  intent,  and  not  at  all 
weighted  with  the  responsibilities  of 
state  which  oppressed  his  noble  father, 
cared  little  whether  the  slaves  were 
free  or  not,  if  only  he  could  have 
a  "jolly"  time. 

He  was  a  typical  Englishman,  hand 
some,  gay,  and  full  of  robust  health. 
The  house  rang  with  the  merriment 
of  the  young  people,  and  the  days  were 
not  long  enough  for  their  frolics. 
When  night  came  they  resorted  to  the 
bowling-alley,  and  played  "  skittles," 
as  young  Bright  called  the  bowling, 
until  eleven  o'clock ;  then  on  our  put 
ting  out  the  lights  and  dismissing  the 
boys  (having  mercy  on  the  little  fel 
lows  who  had  patiently  set  up  the 
pins  for  three  hours),  he  said,  "  I  am 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  71 


having  an  awfully  jolly  time;  could 
we  not  have  another  round  ?  I  hope 
you  do  not  retire  early." 

Being  plain  country  folk,  and  accus 
tomed  to  sleep  before  the  midnight 
hour,  we  were  obliged  to  disappoint 
our  guest ;  but  it  was  well  into  the 
small  hours  of  the  morning  before  he 
went  to  his  room.  His  visit  has  been 
a  pleasant  memory,  and  the  young 
ladies  at  least  will  not  forget  it.  He 
left  us  to  make  a  tour  through  the 
country,  but  several  times  returned 
and  amazed  us  with  accounts  of  his 
adventures  in  the  New  World. 

The  Rev.  Newman  Hall,  of  London, 
spent  his  first  night  in  America  under 
the  elms.  He  was  at  a  loss  to  know, 
when  he  retired  for  the  night,  if  he 
could  be  sure  of  safety  in  a  country 


72  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


where  there  was  no  king  or  queen. 
He  affected  great  ignorance  of  our 
customs  in  this  new  and  benighted 
republic,  and  doubtless  many  of  our 
ways  were  new  and  strange  to  him ; 
but  I  never  felt  quite  sure  that  he 
was  really  as  ignorant  as  he  pretended 
to  be  when  he  asked  if  the  water 
melons  we  offered  him  "  grew  on  trees," 
and  begged  to  be  informed  "where 
the  heat  in  the  rooms  came  from,"  ask 
ing  that  he  might  be  taken  to  the 
cellar  to  see  the  source  of  the  heat. 
He  was  more  ignorant  of  our  laws 
and  customs  than  I  should  suppose 
it  possible  for  any  intelligent  man  to 
be  who  understood  our  language.  He 
could  not  comprehend  our  system  of 
public  schools.  It  was  difficult  to 
make  him  understand  where  the  work 
ing  people  lived.  "  Surely,"  he  said, 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  73 


"  people  who  work  at  day  labor  cannot 
live  in  the  comfortable  cottages  we 
are  passing  as  we  drive."  The  Rev. 
Newman  Hall  spent  some  time  at 
"The  Old  Elms,"  but  he  did  not 
readily  adapt  himself  to  the  customs 
of  New  England  people. 

Principal  Fairbain,  of  Mansfield  Col 
lege,  Oxford,  England,  and  Professor 
Henry  Drummond,  of  world-wide  fame, 
were  among  the  guests  who  gave  great 
pleasure  to  the  dwellers  under  the 
elms.  They  were  full  of  interest  in 
the  work  which  they  came  to  accom 
plish,  and  the  pleasant  impression  they 
left  behind  them  when  they  returned  to 
their  own  country  will  never  be  forgot 
ten.  They  are  held  in  grateful  remem 
brance  by  all  who  had  the  pleasure  of 
meeting  them. 


74  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


I  shall  never  forget  the  beautiful  pic 
ture  that  Principal  Fairbain  made  on 
the  lawn  under  the  elms  with  a  com 
pany  of  little  girls  grouped  about  him, — 
he,  with  his  fascinating  Scotch  brogue 
and  his  typical  Scotch  face,  talking  to 
the  girls  who  met  there  weekly  to  learn 
sewing,  and  to  talk  about  good  manners, 
and  what  best  to  do  with  their  lives, 
and  how  they  could  make  themselves 
useful,  and  how  they  might  help  others 
less  favored  than  they  were.  Many  of 
the  children  were  of  Scotch  parentage, 
and  they  stood  with  wide-open  eyes  and 
ears  to  catch  every  word.  It  was  inter 
esting  to  listen  to  this  wise,  kindly  man 
as  he  tried  to  adapt  his  language  to  the 
little  children. 

One  day  we  drove  from  "The  Old 
Elms  "  to  Concord  that  he  might  see 
the  homes  of  Emerson,  Alcott,  and 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  75 


Hawthorne  and  the  quiet  hillside  of 
their  last  repose.  It  was  most  pleasant 
to  take  him  to  places  of  interest,  and 
to  show  him  anything  peculiarly  Amer 
ican,  because  of  his  quick  interest  and 
cordial  courtesy  and  ready  comprehen 
sion  of  our  life.  There  seems  to  be  a 
community  of  feeling  between  Ameri 
cans  and  Scotchmen  that  is  lacking 
many  times  with  the  English :  this 
was  eminently  true  of  Principal  Fair- 
bain,  who  seemed  to  enjoy  every  phase 
of  American  life. 

He  was  not  disposed  to  criticise  and 
carp  at  what  he  saw  in  our  country  of 
achievement  and  promise  ;  and  he  did 
not  in  the  least  agree  with  the  distin 
guished  Englishman  who  visited  us  not 
long  since,  and  pronounced  America  a 
very  uninteresting  place. 


j6  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


Professor  Drummond  captivated  all 
hearts ;  and  his  words  led  us  to  realize 
more  than  ever  the  beauty  of  this  life, 
and  the  glories  of  the  next,  of  which 
many  who  heard  him  said  he  gave  them 
a  foretaste.  He  taught  those  who  lis 
tened  to  him  to  follow  that  One 
Teacher,  who  among  all  philosophers 
of  the  world's  history  has  associated 
learning  with  character,  charity,  peace, 
love,  eternity  —  who  said,  "  Learn  of 
Me,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  to  your 
souls."  He  said,  "  If  I  held  truth  cap 
tive  in  my  hand,  I  should  open  my  hand 
and  let  it  fly  away  in  order  that  I  might 
again  pursue  and  capture  it." 

Professor  Drummond's  delicate  spir 
itual  face  expressed  his  humane,  lofty 
thoughts.  It  was  a  pleasure  to  look 
upon  him  as  well  as  to  listen  to 
him. 


Under  the  Old  Elms. 


77 


VII. 

IN  the  year  1877  a  move  was  made 
to  sell  the  Old  South  Meeting  House, 
which  stands  at  the  head  of  Milk 
Street.  There  was  a  great  uprising 
among  the  people,  who  wished  to  save 
it  as  a  monument  of  the  old  time  where 
so  much  relating  to  Revolutionary 
days  had  been  enacted.  Miss  Susan 
Hale  personated  Madam  Norton,  who 
gave  the  land  upon  which  the  old 
church  stands ;  and  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  money  to  swell  the  fund  for  the 
purchase  of  the  church,  she  held  a  re 
ception  at  "The  Old  Elms."  The  invi 
tation  is  shown  in  fac  simile  (reduced) 
on  the  following  page  :  — 


78  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


Madam  Mary  Norton 

Has  returned  to  Bofton,  after  long  Abfence,  to  make  In 
quiry  regarding  the  Garden  which  {he  gave  for  the  Building 
of  the 

Old  South  Meeting-Houfe. 

Madam  Norton  has  received  from  divers  Pens,  Verfes  and 
other  Writings  inftructing  her  in  the  Hiftory  of  the  Meeting- 
Houfe,  in  the  Years  fince  f he  left  Bofton. 

She  hopes  for  the  honor  of  your  Company  at  the  Refidence 
of  the 

Hon.  WILLIAM  CLAFLIN,  Newtonville, 

to  hear  thefe  Writings  read,  on 

Saturday  Afternoon,  October  Sixth,  Eighteen 
Hundred  and  Seventy-feven, 

at  4.00  o'clock,  precisely. 
Thefe  writings  are  by 

James  Freeman  Clarke, 
William  Everett, 
James  T.  Fields, 
Edward  Everett  Half, 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes, 
Rev.  S.  F.  Smith,  D.D. 
Samuel  M.  Quincy,  and  others, 

and  Madam  Norton  hopes  that  thefe  Friends  will,  themfelves, 
honor  her  by  reading  what  they  have  written. 

Mr.  I.  F.  Kingfbury,  Mrs.  A.  J.  Rogers,  Mrs.  M.  A. 
Cole,  and  Mr.  J.  W.  Davis,  have,  at  Madam  Norton's  requeft, 
kindly  confented  to  fing,  and  Mrs.  J.  A.  Waldo  to  play. 

Original  Ballads  are  expected  from  Mr.  Longfellow,  and 
Mr.  Whittier. 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  79 


Many  gathered  to  hear  what  Madam 
Norton  had  to  say  ;  and  here,  as  at 
many  other  places  where  she  held 
forth,  a  considerable  sum  of  money 
was  raised  to  supplement  Mrs.  Mary 
Hemenway's  munificent  gift  for  the 
purchase  of  the  meeting-house  which 
had  stood  in  the  centre  of  Boston  for 
more  than  a  century. 

Mrs.  Hemenway  desired  that  this 
meeting-house  around  which  clustered 
so  many  memories  of  other  days,  and 
which  had  been  the  scene  of  all  those 
great  uprisings  which  ended  in  our  in 
dependence,  should  be  left  as  an  object 
lesson  of  inspiration  and  patriotism  to 
the  younger  generation.  The  meeting 
house,  which  was  crowned  the  "  Sanc 
tuary  of  Freedom,"  through  these  patri 
otic  gifts  was  saved  to  Boston  ;  and  Mrs. 
Hemenway,  one  of  the  most  remark- 


8o  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


able  women  of  this  century,  had  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  her  work  accom 
plished. 

She  originated  and  carried  out  many 
plans  for  the  advancement  of  the  young 
people  of  our  time,  for  their  instruc 
tion  in  patriotism,  and  for  inspiring 
them  with  a  love  of  country.  By  keep 
ing  before  them  constantly  through  lec 
tures  and  lessons  at  what  cost  our 
liberties  were  bought,  by  providing 
means  to  improve  their  physical  condi 
tion,  and  by  arousing  in  the  people  a 
desire  to  know  something  of  pre-his- 
toric  America  through  archaeological 
researches,  she  conferred  a  priceless 
boon  on  the  rising  generation. 

By  her  own  efforts,  and  at  her  own 
expense,  she  unearthed  a  city  in  Ari 
zona,  two  miles  in  extent,  which  is  said 
by  archaeologists  to  have  been  buried 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  81 


thousands  of  years.  She  took  from 
the  buried  city  numberless  treasures, 
which  were  pronounced  by  a  congress 
of  scientists  in  Berlin  to  be  of  the 
greatest  value,  proving  our  continent  to 
be  "not  the  New  World,"  but  perhaps 
the  most  ancient.  Who  else  has  done 
what  Mrs.  Hemenway  has  done,  and 
to  whom  do  we  owe  so  much  ? 

She  sometimes  drove  from  her  coun 
try  place  in  Milton,  and  sat  on  the 
piazza  under  the  shade  of  the  elms ;  and 
that  she  may  have  conceived  there 
some  of  her  wonderful  schemes  for  the 
good  of  the  world,  and  especially  of  our 
own  country,  renders  all  the  sweeter 
the  rustle  of  the  leaves  and  the  mur 
muring  of  the  brook,  to  which  she  lis 
tened.  Her  kindly  bearing,  her  noble 
response  to  everything  proposed  for  the 
benefit  of  humanity,  her  hopeful  atti- 


82  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


tude  towards  the  world,  made  her  pres* 
ence  and  spirit  never  to  be  forgotten. 

Dr.  Kirk,  the  eloquent  preacher  of 
Boston,  came  often  to  "The  Old  Elms  " 
for  rest  and  refreshment,  and  he  always 
gave  more  than  he  took  away.  His  con 
versation  was  most  inspiring  and  instruc 
tive.  He  was  proficient  in  all  the  graces 
and  elegances  of  life  ;  and  in  his  day 
no  one  excelled  him  in  pulpit  eloquence, 
or  in  those  conversational  gifts  that 
made  him  sought  by  the  best  society. 

Pere  Hyacinth,  when  he  was  in 
this  country,  was  invited  to  meet  Dr. 
Kirk;  and  several  gentlemen,  all  of 
whom  were  supposed  to  be  familiar 
with  the  French  language,  came  to 
dine  with  the  distinguished  foreigner  at 
my  table.  Each  gentleman  in  turn  tried 
to  enter  into  conversation  with  Pere 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  83 


Hyacinth,  who  could  not  speak  or  un 
derstand   one    word   of    English. 

Dr.  Kirk  was  the  only  person  whose 
French  was  available  for  conversation, 
for  the  pronunciation  of  the  other  gen 
tlemen  was  not  what  the  accomplished 
stranger  had  been  accustomed  to.  One 
of  the  guests,  in  his  great  desire  to 
converse  with  Pere  Hyacinth,  said,  "  I 
will  try  Latin."  But,  alas !  his  Latin 
was  pronounced  in  accordance  with  the 
English  system,  and  Pere  Hyacinth's 
with  the  Continental ;  and  that  attempt 
also  failed.  It  may  be  imagined  the 
dinner  was  not  a  great  social  success. 
Conversation  dragged  and  grated  like 
the  keel  of  a  boat  upon  a  sand-bar  in  a 
river  at  low  tide.  But  for  Dr.  Kirk's 
tact  and  perfect  French,  silence  would 
have  settled  down  upon  the  whole  com 
pany. 


84  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


During  Dr.  Kirk's  last  years  he  was 
deprived  of  sight.  His  life  had  been 
spent  in  study,  and  his  love  of  all  beau 
tiful  things  in  nature  had  filled  his 
lonely  life  (he  was  without  wife  or 
child)  ;  but  at  the  last,  when  earthly 
objects  were  fading  from  his  sight, 
he  found  perfect  peace  and  comfort  in 
his  visions  of  the  heavenly  city,  which 
were  so  real  that  he  often  said,  "  I  do 
not  care  to  see  earthly  scenes,  for  it 
would,  I  fear,  interrupt  my  views  of 
the  celestial  country."  And  so  he 
went  away;  and  "The  Old  Elms" 
mourned  the  loss  of  one  who  had  loved 
its  flowers  and  shaded  paths,  and  made 
the  home  there  dearer  for  his  presence. 

Mr.  Henry  F.  Durant,  that  rare  man 
of  consecrated  genius  and  shrewd  com 
mon  sense,  was  a  close  friend  of  Dr. 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  85 


Kirk;  and  together  those  two  devoted 
men  often  met  at  "  The  Old  Elms  "  to 
consider  how  best  Mr.  Durant  could 
use  his  large  fortune  to  promote  and 
advance  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  on  earth.  Mr.  Durant  had  a 
beautiful  boy,  his  only  child,  for  whom 
he  was  preparing  and  adorning  a  fine 
estate,  upon  which  he  intended  to  build 
a  family  mansion.  He  was  in  the  midst 
of  life,  being  yet  not  forty  years  of  age, 
and  in  the  height  of  his  fame,  when  his 
boy  was  attacked  with  that  fell  disease, 
diphtheria,  and  in  one  week  was  re 
moved  from  his  earthly  sight  forever. 

This  crushing  blow  changed  the 
whole  current  of  his  life  ;  during  that 
week  his  hair  turned  white  as  snow  ;  he 
gave  up  the  profession  of  law  in  which 
he  had  become  renowned,  and  resolved 
that  henceforth  his  life  and  his  fortune 


86  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


should  be  consecrated  to  God.  For  five 
years  he  labored  and  studied,  going  up 
and  down  through  the  country,  consult 
ing  wise  men  and  prominent  educators 
as  to  the  best  way  of  using  his  fortune 
for  the  greatest  good  of  mankind. 

At  length,  led  as  he  fully  believed  by 
the  Divine  Spirit,  he  decided  that  to 
found  an  institution  for  the  broadest 
Christian  education  of  women  was  the 
wisest  thing  he  could  do ;  hence  he  built 
and  equipped  Wellesley  College,  which 
stands  to-day  as  a  noble  monument  to 
his  memory,  though  he  forbade  the  use 
of  his  name  in  connection  with  it,  say 
ing  always,  "It  is  God's  college,  not 
mine." 

The  college  hall  stands  in  the  midst 
of  the  beautiful  trees  he  had  planted, 
and  on  the  borders  of  the  lake  he  had 
prepared  for  the  home  of  his  boy.  It 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  87 


is  furnished  with  everything  that  is  re 
quired  in  the  best  institutions  of  learn 
ing,  with  the  most  approved  apparatus 
for  scientific  pursuits,  with  a  library  of 
nearly  sixty  thousand  choice  books,  and 
an  art  building  with  a  fine  collection  of 
paintings  and  statuary.  This  noble 
college,  the  largest  in  the  world  for 
women,  and  probably  the  most  thor 
oughly  equipped  for  its  purposes,  has 
been  for  years  one  of  the  chief  inter 
ests  of  the  dwellers  at  "The  Old 
Elms,"  and  the  friends  who  gather 
there.  There  Mr.  Durant  often  came 
to  consider  and  mature  his  plans ;  and 
there,  later,  came  the  bright  young  col 
lege  girls  from  every  state  in  the  Union 
to  make  the  fields  and  meadows  re 
sound  with  their  merry  voices,  to  wan 
der  through  the  paths  under  the  elms, 
and  to  gather  wild  flowers  that  grew 
beside  the  brook. 


Under  the  Old  Elms. 


Mr.  Durant  lived  only  long  enough 
to  see  the  college  well  started,  and  to 
be  assured  that  he  had  made  no  mis 
take  in  the  disposition  of  his  fortune. 
The  college  was  planned  to  accommo 
date  three  hundred  students.  It  has 
been  enlarged  year  after  year,  until 
now  nearly  a  thousand  are  scattered 
through  its  beautiful  halls  and  cottages. 
Mrs.  Durant  has  devoted  her  life  to  the 
interests  of  the  college,  and  as  far  as 
possible  has  carried  out  her  husband's 
wishes. 

Ex-President  and  Mrs.  Hayes  were 
among  the  friends  who  were  most  wel 
come  at  the  "Elms."  President 
Hayes,  with  his  quiet  dignity  and  re 
serve,  when  questioned,  related  his 
army  experiences  with  great  enthu 
siasm.  His  tender  interest  in  his  sol- 


Under  tbe  Old  Elms.  89 


diers  impressed  us  with  his  warm, 
self-sacrificing  heart.  One  incident  of 
his  army  life  is  worth  repeating  if  only 
as  a  practical  lesson. 

"A  terrible  thunder-storm,"  said  he, 
"  occurred  on  a  mountain-side  where 
my  troops  were  bivouacked.  The  light 
ning  flashed  as  I  never  saw  it  flash  be 
fore,  and  my  men  were  terrified.  Soon 
a  report  was  brought  to  me  that  our 
provision  wagons  were  struck  and  scat 
tered  to  the  four  winds,  and  seven  of 
our  men  were  lying  lifeless  on  the 
ground.  I  said,  '  I  will  go  to  them  ;  I 
think  we  may  restore  them  ! '  After 
working  for  hours  upon  what  appeared 
to  be  their  lifeless  bodies,  every  one 
of  them  was  brought  to  life.  My  re 
peated  experiences  have  convinced  me," 
said  Mr.  Hayes,  "that  persons  simply 
stunned  by  lightning  may  almost  inva- 


90  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


riably  be  brought  to  consciousness  by 
persistent  effort ;  and  I  am  convinced 
that  many  people  have  been  buried 
alive  who  might  have  been  saved  if 
intelligent  efforts  had  been  applied  to 
their  resuscitation." 

Quiet  and  reserved  usually,  he  was 
roused  to  great  enthusiasm  and  elo 
quence  when  he  touched  upon  army 
life  and  experience.  This  seemed  to 
have  had  far  more  interest  for  him  than 
his  presidential  career. 

Dr.  Peter  Parker,  of  Chinese  reputa 
tion  and  fame,  who  built  the  first  hos 
pital  in  the  Chinese  Empire,  and 
accomplished  much  in  opening  to  the 
"  Flowery  Kingdom "  the  wonders  of 
medical  science,  especially  in  the  treat 
ment  of  the  eye,  was  a  frequent  visitor 
at  "  The  Old  Elms."  Dr.  Parker  was 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  91 


the  first  commissioner  from  this  gov 
ernment  to  China,  and  his  name  is  held 
in  great  reverence  by  all  enlightened 
Chinese.  He  acquired  the  Chinese 
language,  which  few  Americans  in  his 
day  had  done ;  and  he  had  a  better 
knowledge  of  Chinese  manners  and  cus 
toms,  probably,  than  any  other  of  our 
countrymen.  His  long  residence  in 
China  made  him  familiar  with  the  coun 
try,  and  his  conversation  was  most  in 
teresting  and  instructive. 


92  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


VIII. 

As  I  look  back,  what  varied  forms 
and  faces  seen  in  that  loved  home 
gleam  through  the  mists  of  years ! 
How  many  interesting  people  I  recall, 
who  at  one  time  or  another  I  have  had 
the  pleasure  of  greeting  there! 

Elizabeth  Stuart  Phelps,  with  her 
intense  nature  and  her  sympathy  with 
the  suffering  and  sorrowing,  whose  bril 
liant  conversation  captivated  her  list- 
teners ;  General  Armstrong,  with  his 
burning  zeal  to  uplift  the  lowly  ;  Gen 
eral  Banks,  in  his  commanding  prime, 
the  self-taught,  eloquent  man  to  whom, 
when,  as  Governor,  he  delivered  an 
address  at  Harvard  at  the  inauguration 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  93 


of  President  Felton,  Edward  Everett 
said :  "  Harvard  College  has  no  hon 
ors  to  bestow  upon  you,  sir ;  your 
presence  is  an  honor  to  Harvard ; " 
Mrs.  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  a  woman 
with  the  dignity  of  colonial  days,  and 
whom  I  especially  recall  as  she  stood 
one  afternoon  upon  the  piazza  and  urged 
that  some  syringa  bushes  which  en 
croached  somewhat  upon  the  huge 
trunk  of  one  of  the  old  trees  might  be 
cut  down,  so  that  its  grand  proportions 
should  be  at  once  revealed ;  Madam 
Carmen  Diaz,  the  wife  of  the  president 
of  Mexico,  to  whom,  as  we  passed  the 
green-house  door,  the  gardener  pre 
sented  a  superb  rose  of  a  new  variety 
just  in  bloom,  —  a  rose  which  so  suited 
her  grace  and  rich  Southern  beauty 
that  thenceforth  we  called  it  the  Car 
men  Diaz  rose  ;  Miss  Emily  Faithful, 


94  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


whose  generous  proportions,  strong, 
motherly  face,  and  sweet  voice  were  in 
harmony  with  her  humane  labors  ;  Miss 
Mary  Carpenter,  with  her  otherwise 
plain  features  illumined  by  the  sympa 
thetic  soul  that, had  enabled  her  to  give 
such  help  to  the  unfortunate  women  of 
India ;  Miss  Alice  Freeman,  the  gifted 
president  of  Wellesley  College,  through 
whose  distinguished  administration  the 
institution  rose  to  its  true  place  among 
the  universities  of  the  country ;  and 
many,  many  more,  who  came  with  their 
wisdom  and  enthusiasm,  their  cheer 
and  mirth,  to  brighten  the  hours,  and 
leave  delightful  memories. 

Lucy  Larcom,  the  gentle,  genial 
friend,  loved  the  shade  of  the  elms. 
She  did  not  care  to  mingle  with  the 
world ;  and  always  preferred  some  quiet 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  95 


corner  where  she  could  commune  with 
nature,  where  she  could  listen  to  the 
lowing  of  the  cattle  in  the  meadow  and 
the  song  of  the  birds,  where  she  could 
sit  among  the  flowers  and  dream  her 
dreams  and  make  the  verses  that  went 
home  to  so  many  hearts.  She  was  full 
of  gentle  courtesy  and  kindly  feeling 
toward  everybody  with  whom  she  came 
in  contact,  and  a  little  verse  she  wrote 
for  a  young  girl  in  the  family,  who 
asked  her  autograph,  showed  the  ex 
quisite  nature  which  could  not  refuse 
so  small  a  request  without  pain.  For 
some  good  reason,  doubtless,  she  de 
ferred  writing  the  autograph  until  it 
•was  too  late  ;  the  young  girl  passed 
away  from  earth,  and  to  the  mother 
came  the  sweet  tribute  :  — 

"  She  sent  to  ask  a  verse  of  me  to  keep. 
I  promised,  but  delayed ;  and  now  asleep 


$6  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


She  lies,  an  ocean's  aching  width  between 
Her  mother's  tears  and  her  unwaking  rest, 
Beneath  the  soft  blue  skies  of  Italy. 
Alas  !  betwixt  fulfilment  and  request 
There  rolls  a  wider,  more  mysterious  sea. 

Endless  regret  from  smallest  cause  may  grow. 
Is  any  failure  to  do  kindness  small? 

Since  her  I  may  not,  thee  I  send  my  line 
As  a  stray  leaf  to  lay  upon  her  grave !  ' 

Edna  Dean  Proctor,  with  her 
strength  and  imagination,  and  loyalty 
to  nature,  her  poetic  genius  and  person 
al  charm,  was  an  ever-welcome  visitor. 
Pleasant  were  the  hours  when  she 
would  repeat  for  us  some  inspiring 
poem,  or  picture  for  us  some  rare  scene 
at  home  or  abroad.  Our  friends  de 
lighted  in  her  tales  of  travel  in  Russia 
and  in  the  Holy  Land  ;  and  Mr.  Whit- 
tier  used  to  say  to  her,  "  I  do  not  need 
to  undergo  the  fatigue  of  travel,  for  I 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  97 


can  see  everything,  when  thee  tells  me 
about  the  countries  thee  has  visited.  I 
can  see  the  rivers  of  Russia,  and  the 
mountains  of  Palestine,  all  before  me, 
and  it  is  far  more  pleasant  to  see  them 
through  thine  eyes." 

Dr.  Joseph  Campbell,  a  native  of 
Tennessee,  who  was  connected  with  the 
Asylum  for  the  Blind  in  South  Boston, 
came  often  to  "The  Old  Elms"  as  a 
friend  and  a  teacher  of  music.  We  en 
joyed  his  congenial  companionship  for 
several  years  ;  and  then,  when  his  health 
failed  from  overwork,  he  was  advised  by 
physicians  to  cross  the  ocean.  His 
first  thought  when  he  arrived  in  Eng 
land  was  to  look  into  the  condition  of 
the  blind,  and  to  study  the  methods 
employed  for  their  education  and  ad 
vancement.  He  found  them  very  inad- 


98  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


equate,  and  he  set  himself  immediately 
at  work  to  improve  their  condition.  As 
the  result  of  his  untiring  efforts,  a  Nor 
mal  College  was  built  in  upper  Nor 
wood,  London,  for  the  education  of  the 
blind. 

Dr.  Campbell  was  a  man  of  remark 
able  gifts.  He  had  rare  genius  and 
consummate  tact,  and  he  succeeded  at 
once  in  winning  the  favor  of  the  Duke 
of  Westminster  and  of  Dr.  Armitage, 
both  of  whom  gave  him  moral  and  finan 
cial  support.  His  experiences  in  Eu 
rope,  as  he  related  them  at  our  fireside, 
were  most  interesting.  Dr.  Campbell 
told  the  story  of  refusing  to  take  into 
his  school  a  German  prince  who  was 
blind.  The  parents  of  the  prince,  after 
looking  all  over  Europe,  decided  that 
Dr.  Campbell's  school  was  the  best  for 
the  education  of  the  blind,  and  they 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  99 


wished  to  place  their  son  there  ;  but  the 
Doctor  informed  them  that  he  should 
be  unable  to  accede  to  their  wishes,  for 
his  institution  was  a  republican  institu 
tion,  conducted  upon  American  princi 
ples,  and  to  receive  a  prince  with  his 
attendants  would  interfere  with  the 
management  of  the  school  and  family. 
He  was  urged,  but  to  no  purpose.  His 
dignified  and  persistent  refusal  to  take 
the  prince  greatly  surprised  the  prince's 
friends,  who  had  supposed  it  would  be 
regarded  as  an  important  card  for  the 
school  to  have  for  a  pupil  one  of  a  royal 
family. 

When  it  was  found  that  Dr.  Camp 
bell  would  not  yield  the  point,  the  par 
ents  of  the  prince  said,  "  If  you  will 
not  take  him  as  a  prince,  will  you  take 
him  as  a  beggar  ?  He  must  come  to 
your  school."  And  thus  he  was  re- 


ioo  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


ceived  on  the  same  footing  as  any  waif 
taken  from  the  slums  of  London.  He 
remained  several  years  in  the  institu 
tion. 

Dr.  Campbell  is  the  only  blind  man 
who  has  ever  ascended  Mont  Blanc ; 
and  when  asked  why  he  undertook  the 
perilous  journey,  his  answer  was,  "  To 
bring  my  school  into  notice.  The  Lon 
don  Times  does  not  hesitate  now  to 
speak  of  my  school,  whereas  before  I 
ascended  Mont  Blanc,  the  only  blind 
man  who  had  ever  accomplished  this,  it 
was  difficult  to  get  any  space  in  that  or 
any  other  prominent  paper  in  London." 

A  visit  to  Dr.  Campbell's  institution 
in  upper  Norwood,  under  the  shadow  of 
the  Crystal  Palace,  would  well  repay 
any  American ;  for  few  of  our  country 
men  have  ever  accomplished  more  in 
England  than  this  sightless  man. 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  101 


He  went  to  England  poor,  blind,  and 
friendless ;  he  now  counts  among  his 
friends  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  Duke 
of  Westminster,  and  the  princesses  of 
the  royal  family.  He  is  invited  to  take 
his  pupils  to  sing  and  play  before  the 
Queen  ;  and  his  school  is  considered  the 
best  in  Europe  for  the  education  of 
the  blind. 

It  was  an  interesting  day  when  Mr. 
Campbell  brought  from  the  Institution 
in  South  Boston  fifty  blind  children  to 
see  "  The  Old  Elms  ; "  and  no  company 
of  sight-seeing  boys  and  girls  ever  en 
joyed  more  in  looking  at  the  flowers 
and  fruits  of  the  green-houses,  than  did 
these  sightless  children,  who,  with  their 
sensitive  fingers  and  in  spite  of  the 
"blackness  of  darkness,"  seemed  to 
appreciate  all  the  beauty  of  form  and 
even  of  color,  in  the  tiniest  flower  and 


io2  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


the  most  delicate  fern  ;  and  measured 
the  great  elms  by  stretching  their  arms 
around  them.  They  certainly  enjoyed 
to  the  full  all  the  beauty  of  flowers  and 
trees,  of  brook  and  meadow  —  and  what 
a  merry  company  it  was  that  drove 
down  the  avenue,  singing  as  they  went. 

It  was  the  custom  in  the  early  days 
to  hold  educational  conventions  in  every 
county  of  the  State  to  discuss  methods, 
and  to  introduce  new  and  improved 
plans  in  all  the  small  district  schools. 
These  conventions  were  conducted  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Educa 
tion,  appointed  by  the  Governor,  and 
assisted  by  the  wise  educators  that 
comprised  the  Board.  Professor  Agas- 
siz,  Dr.  Sears,  and  Professor  Guyot, 
who  afterward  became  famous  in  his 
particular  line  of  study,  —  for  his  re- 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  103 


searches  in  physical  geography,  —  were 
all  members  of  the  Board  of  Education 
in  Massachusetts. 

It  fell  to  my  lot  to  entertain  the  gen 
tlemen  for  a  week,  when  the  meeting 
was  held  in  our  neighborhood ;  and 
among  the  guests  was  Professor  Agas- 
siz,  a  member  of  the  School  Board, 
whom  to  know  was  a  liberal  education. 
With  his  genial  presence  and  fascinat 
ing  manner,  he  took  every  one  captive ; 
and  to  this  far-off  day  his  visit  is  re 
membered  in  our  village  as  an  honor. 
One  little  circumstance  is  so  character 
istic  of  him  (and  I  wish  never  to  forget 
it)  that  I  will  repeat  it.  There  was  a 
meeting  called  of  ladies  in  Boston  who 
were  interested  in  promoting  the  best 
methods  of  education,  to  listen  to  an 
English  gentleman  who  was  somewhat 
renowned  as  a  practical  educator  in  his 


104  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


own  country.  His  remarks  and  observa 
tions  were  altogether  from  an  English 
stand-point ;  and  he  said,  among  other 
things  which  sounded  strange  to  our 
republican  ears,  "  I  do  not  understand 
how  you  conduct  your  public  schools. 
How  do  you  know  that  your  child  will 
not  be  obliged  to  sit  by  a  wash-wo 
man's  child  or  a  blacksmith's  child  ? " 
When  the  gentleman  had  finished  his 
speech,  the  ladies  sat  breathless  in 
dumb  amazement,  wondering  how  best 
to  reply  to  such  un-American  senti 
ments.  Professor  Agassiz,  a  foreigner 
born,  arose,  and  in  his  fascinating  voice 
and  convincing,  persuasive  manner, 
said :  "  The  glory  of  our  country  is 
that  we  have  no  wash-woman's  children 
or  blacksmith's  children,  as  such  ;  and 
all  we  have  to  fear  is  that  the  wash 
woman's  child  will  go  ahead  of  our 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  105 


children,  and  leave  them  in  the  back 
ground." 

These  words  were  like  an  electric 
shock,  coming  from  this  European,  and 
testifying  to  the  grandeur  of  American 
patriotism ;  and  the  unfortunate  Eng 
lishman  looked  wilted  under  this  over 
whelming  idea  of  equality,  while  the 
ladies  raised  their  heads  in  proud  ap 
preciation  of  their  distinguished  advo 
cate,  and  were  ready  to  embrace  him. 

John  B.  Gough,  the  eloquent  tem 
perance  advocate,  spent  many  days 
at  "  The  Old  Elms,"  and  with  his  wit 
and  humor  enlivened  many  an  hour 
after  returning  from  his  lectures.  Be 
fore  the  lecture  he  was  always  "go 
ing  to  fail,"  and  "  probably  would 
have  to  be  dragged  from  the  platform 
in  disgrace."  This  was  his  invari- 


io6  Under  the  Old  Elms. ' 


able  experience,  though  he  lectured 
thousands  of  times,  and  always  to  the 
largest  audiences.  One  could  only  en 
dure  the  prelude  by  keeping  in  mind 
the  postlude. 

On  one  occasion  we  had  promised 
to  accompany  him  to  Norfolk,  where 
he  was  going  to  speak.  The  idea  took 
possession  of  him  that  his  lecture  would 
be  a  total  failure,  that  he  probably 
should  not  live  to  get  through  it,  or 
if  he  did  not  die  on  the  platform  he 
should  disgrace  all  his  friends.  He 
set  up  a  fearful  impromptu  cough,  and 
walked  the  floor  in  agony,  saying  to 
his  wife,  who  was  a  pattern  of  patience 
and  forbearance,  "  I  know  I  shall  die, 
Mary ;  just  listen  to  my  cough  ;  how 
can  I  lecture  with  such  a  cough  ?  " 

We  were  all  appalled ;  for  we  knew 
great  preparations  had  been  made  for 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  107 


the  lecture,  and  his  condition  was  so 
much  worse  than  usual,  that  we  were 
at  a  loss  to  know  what  course  to  pur 
sue  ;  but  by  dint  of  perseverance  and 
coaxing  we  succeeded  in  getting  him  to 
the  platform,  where  he  gave  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  of  lectures  to  a  crowded 
audience  whose  enthusiasm  knew  no 
bounds.  His  cough  disappeared,  and 
his  spirits  rose  to  the  highest  pitch,  and 
he  gave  up  all  idea  of  dying. 

In  the  early  days,  lyceum  lectures 
were  common  in  the  country  villages, 
and  the  pleasure  of  entertaining  the 
lecturers  usually  fell  to  me.  When  Hor 
ace  Greely  came,  he  said,  "  I  think  I 
ought  to  have  as  much  as  twenty-five 
dollars  for  coming  here  from  New 
York  to  lecture ;  and  if  there  are  those 
who  cannot  afford  to  pay  twenty-five 


io8  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


cents  entrance  fee,  it  would  be  but  a 
friendly  act  for  you  to  present  them 
with  tickets." 

I  well  remember  his  peculiar  impres 
sive  appearance,  his  massive  head,  blue 
eyes,  and  exquisitely  fair  skin,  the  light 
overcoat  which  he  always  wore,  and  the 
huge  "  arctics  "  which  he  would  have 
worn  to  the  platform  if  the  committee- 
man  in  attendance  had  not  suggested 
to  him  that  he  would  be  more  comfort 
able  if  he  removed  them  —  so  intent 
was  he  upon  his  theme,  and  so  forgetful 
of  himself.  His  lectures  were  interest 
ing,  but  not  brilliant.  When  supper 
was  finished,  and  some  question  was 
asked  him  regarding  the  condition  of 
the  country,  he  discoursed  with  such 
wide  intelligence  and  wisdom,  told  such 
pithy  anecdotes,  and  indulged  in  such 
choice  reminiscences,  that  we  listened 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  109 


to  him  as  if  he  had  been  a  Mentor 
who  knew  all  the  springs  of  action,  and 
could  control  the  whole  flow  of  affairs. 

Many  strange  visitors  came  to  "  The 
Old  Elms,"  and  among  them  once  was 
a  woman  who  addressed  me  thus  :  — 

"  I  have  come  to  you,  madam,  as  one 
who  will  understand  my  position,  and 
appreciate  the  necessity  of  my  case.  I 
address  a  lady  ;  I  also  am  a  lady,  and 
fit  to  associate  with  the  best  in  the 
land ;  but  fate  has  compelled  me  to 
do  something  for  a  livelihood,  and  I 
have  chosen  the  position  of  lady's  com 
panion  as  being  best  adapted  to  my  re 
fined  taste  and  requirements,  and, 
though  I  say  it  who  should  not,  per 
haps  I  am  able  to  fill  any  position  ;  but, 
of  course,  it  is  quite  necessary  that  I 
should  make  a  suitable  appearance,  and 


no  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


I  have,  I  must  confess  to  you,  no  dress 
suitable  for  those  occasions  where  a 
lady  is  expected  to  make  a  very  digni 
fied  and  graceful  appearance.  In  short, 
I  have  no  dress  with  a  train  ;  and  you 
know  as  well  as  I  how  much  more  a 
lady  is  respected  who  has  a  train  to 
her  dress,  especially  by  the  foreign  per 
suasion,  that  is,  by  the  servants  of  a 
fine  house,  such  as  I  am  fitted  to  adorn. 
I  have  one  dress  which  I  think  could 
be  converted  by  an  artistic  dressmaker 
into  a  train.  I  feel  competent  myself 
to  make  a  plain  skirt,  but  I  really  do 
do  not  feel  equal  to  the  perfect  adjust 
ment  of  a  train,  and  I  have  not  the 
money  to  procure  a  skilled  artist ;  but 
knowing  your  sympathy  with  all  who 
wish  to  make  the  most  and  best  of 
themselves,  I  felt  that  it  would  be 
only  a  pleasure  to  you  to  let  me 


Under  tbe  Old  Elms. 


have  five  dollars,  which  I  think  would 
enable  me  to  do  what  is  so  desir 
able." 

During  this  long  harangue  I  had  ex 
perienced  nearly  every  emotion  of 
which  the  heart  is  capable  ;  but  when 
she  finished,  indignation  prevailed,  and 
I  exclaimed  with  considerable  warmth, 
"  I  think  you  will  gain  much  more  re 
spect  by  wearing  a  plain  skirt  than 
you  will  by  appearing  in  a  train  which 
you  have  begged  the  money  to  pro 
cure.  I  must  decline  your  request." 

At  this  juncture  my  lady  assumed 
quite  a  different  attitude ;  with  a  very 
lofty  air,  and  in  most  contemptuous 
tones  she  said,  "  I  see  I  am  much  mis 
taken  in  the  person  I  address.  I 
thought  I  was  addressing  a  Christian 
lady  ; "  and,  slamming  the  door,  she  dis 
appeared. 


ii2  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


An  interesting  incident  occurred  in 
connection  with  one  of  Mr.  Wilson's 
visits  at  "The  Old  Elms."  A  lady 
from  a  distance  presented  herself  to  me 
on  a  hot  summer's  day,  when  the  vice- 
president  was  sojourning  with  us,  and 
requested  an  interview.  So  great  was 
the  heat  I  had  declined  to  see  visitors ; 
but  the  lady  urged  her  suit.  She  said 
she  had  come  quite  a  distance  in  the 
cars,  and  her  business  was  very  impor 
tant.  Her  appeal  was  so  persistent 
that  I  could  not  resist ;  and  when  I  en 
tered  the  parlor  the  lady  arose,  begged 
my  pardon  for  interrupting  me,  and  re 
marked  she  thought  the  importance  of 
her  visit  would  justify  the  interview, 
even  on  such  an  afternoon  as  this. 
Then  she  introduced  her  subject :  — 

"  Madam,  I  believe  you  are  a  friend 
of  the  vice-president  ? " 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  113 


I  replied  :  "  Yes  ;  the  vice-president 
is  a  friend  of  my  husband." 

"  You  are  aware,  madam,  that  he  is 
a  man  of  powerful  physique ;  he  has  a 
very  broad  chest,  and  consequently  re 
quires  a  great  deal  of  air  to  properly 
expand  his  lungs.  My  mind  has  been 
greatly  exercised  of  late  about  his  sur 
roundings  ;  his  own  house  is  small,  and 
you  know,  madam,  his  means  are  quite 
limited.  The  room  he  occupies  is  not 
large  ;  the  ceiling  is  low ;  and  the  air  is 
not  sufficient  for  a  man  of  his  lung 
capacity.  It  is  very  sad  that  he  has  no 
one  to  give  him  a  welcoming  smile 
when  he  returns  to  his  home  after  his 
arduous  duties ;  and  I  have,  madam, 
quite  a  large  place  and  quite  a  fortune 
in  my  own  right.  My  rooms  are  large 
and  airy,  and  much  better  adapted  to 
the  wants  of  a  man  in  his  position  than 


ii4  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


those  he  now  occupies.  My  fortune  is 
considerable  now,  and  will  be  larger 
when  my  mother  passes  away ;  she  is 
quite  aged,  and  will  not  probably  live 
long.  You  doubtless  perceive,  madam, 
by  my  conversation,  that  I  am  a  lady  of 
refinement  and  education,  that  I  could 
adorn  the  high  position  I  should  take 
as  the  vice-president's  wife  ;  and  I  have 
come  to  you  feeling  sure  that  you  would 
appreciate  my  feeling,  and  would  make 
known  to  the  vice-president  your  im 
pression  of  me  and  of  my  ability  to 
grace  any  position.  If  I  say  it  who 
should  not,  perhaps,  I  suppose  there 
are  few  ladies  in  the  country  better 
fitted  to  adorn  the  position  which 
I  should  take  as  his  wife  than  I 
am." 

After  a  somewhat  prolonged  visit  the 
lady  bowed  herself  out.     I  was  left  to 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  115 


meditate  upon  the  strange  experiences 
of  life. 

A  company  of  the  most  warlike  In 
dian  chiefs  from  the  far  West  was 
brought  by  the  Indian  Commissioner, 
appointed  by  the  Government,  to  Bos 
ton.  In  compliance  with  the  request 
of  Sitting  Bull,  Thunder  Cloud,  Red 
Jacket,  and  many  more,  who  wished  to 
see  how  the  "  chief  "  in  Massachusetts 
lived,  they  were  driven  out  to  "The 
Old  Elms,"  accompanied  by  their  inter 
preter  and  the  dignified  commissioners. 
They  were  all  dressed  in  their  blankets 
and  feathers  and  beads  and  wampum. 
As  they  drove  up  the  avenue  in  fine  ba 
rouches,  and  with  prancing  horses,  they 
presented  a  very  unusual  and  pictur 
esque  appearance  ;  but  never  by  word 
or  look  did  they  betray  the  fact  that 


u6  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


they  had  not  been  accustomed  to  riding 
in  barouches  up  long  avenues  of  elms 
all  their  lives  ;  and  when  they  were  pre 
sented  to  the  hostess,  a  solemn  nod  of 
the  head,  a  guttural  grunt,  was  their 
only  recognition. 

I  was  presented  as  "  the  white  chief's 
squaw;"  but  they  gave  no  sign  of  pleas 
ure,  and  I  was  quite  at  a  loss  to  know 
what  next  to  do,  when  I  was  informed 
by  the  interpreter  that  they  would  not 
recognize  me  as  "  the  great  chief's 
squaw  "  unless  I  could  show  them  some 
"pappooses;"  "for,"  said  he,  "the  In 
dians  believe  that  the  Great  Spirit  will 
never  smile  upon  a  house  where  there 
are  no  "pappooses." 

Thus  informed,  the  "  pappooses " 
were  called,  and  I  armed  myself  with 
a  child  on  either  side  and  appeared  be 
fore  them ;  then,  for  the  first  time,  they 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  117 


smiled  and  saluted  me  in  true  Indian 
fashion,  after  which  they  made  them 
selves  quite  at  home,  apparently  inter 
ested  in  what  they  saw,  but  not  in 
the  least  surprised,  as  it  is  contrary 
to  their  nature  and  etiquette  to  appear 
surprised  at  anything. 

When  they  were  taken  into  the  din 
ing-room,  where  a  table  was  spread 
with  the  usual  dainties  provided  at  an 
afternoon  tea,  they  behaved  with  civil 
ized  propriety,  but  with  more  than  civ 
ilized  appetites.  After  eating  all  that 
was  offered,  they  squatted  on  the  floor, 
unable  to  stand  the  strain  longer.  It 
was  a  time  of  uncommon  novelty  and 
interest ;  and  when  some  months  later 
we  read  of  scalpings  and  massacres 
carried  on  by  our  afternoon  guests,  we 
were  grateful  that  the  length  of  a  con 
tinent  separated  us  from  the  visitors 


n8  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


whom  we  had  entertained  in  a  most 
peaceful  and  friendly  fashion,  never 
dreaming  they  might  like  our  scalps  to 
ornament  their  beaded  belts. 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  119 


IX. 

ONE  of  the  pleasant  memories  of 
"  The  Old  Elms  "  is  the  fetes  of  lit 
tle  children  which  took  place  there 
almost  every  year.  The  children  who 
had  no  green  grass  to  play  upon  and 
no  wild  flowers  to  gather,  used  to  come 
and  revel  in  the  stacks  of  new-mown 
hay,  and  gather  buttercups  and  daisies 
with  as  much  pleasure  as  though  they 
had  been  Jacqueminots  and  carnations. 
Hundreds  of  children  have  frolicked 
in  the  shade  of  the  elms ;  and  the 
thought  that  joy  and  pleasure  were 
put  into  their  cheerless  lives  even  for 
a  day  made  the  trees  and  the  flowers 
more  dear  to  those  who  dwell  there. 


120  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


Little  sales  were  held  under  the 
trees  year  after  year,  in  memory  of 
the  daughter  of  the  house,  who  said 
to  her  young  companions  as  she  was 
leaving  home  to  travel  in  Europe : 
"  While  we  are  separated,  let  us  re 
member  each  other  in  working  for  the 
Lord's  poor.  I  am  tired  of  Circles  ; 
we  will  call  ourselves  '  The  Charity 
Square.'  I  will  gather  things  as  I 
travel  from  place  to  place,  and  you 
can  work  here,  and  in  the  autumn 
have  a  fair  for  the  Orphan's  Home." 
Her  plans  were  enthusiastically  carried 
out  by  her  young  companions  who  had 
worked  busily  all  through  the  sum 
mer  months,  and  her  box  of  treasures 
came  in  time  for  the  autumn  sale. 
There  was  a  fine  display  of  dainty 
work,  and  pretty  trinkets  which  sold 
as  well  for  her  sake  as  for  the  orphans'. 


Under  the  Old  Elms. 


It  came  about  that  not  far  from  the 
time  of  the  little  sale  she  passed  from 
Rome  to  the  "  City  that  hath  founda 
tions  ;  "  and  the  last  news  she  received 
from  "  The  Old  Elms  "  (the  place  she 
loved  above  all  earthly  spots)  was  an 
account  of  the  success  of  the  fair  for 
which  she  had  labored,  never  for  a  mo 
ment  forgetting,  wherever  she  went, 
to  add  something  to  the  box  which 
was  to  be  sent  home  in  the  autumn 
to  "The  Charity  Square." 

In  memory  of  her,  this  little  sale  was 
repeated  year  after  year  under  the  old 
elms,  until  the  young  girls  scattered 
to  make  new  homes  for  themselves ; 
and  thousands  of  dollars  were  added 
to  the  treasury  of  the  Orphan's  Home. 

Just  as  she  was  taking  her  flight 
from  Italy  to  the  Eternal  City,  a  lit 
tle  Italian  waif  appeared  on  the  even- 


122  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


ing  of  the  sale  (as  though  sent  by 
Heaven),  and  asked  protection.  He 
was  a  tiny  boy  ;  his  great  black  eyes 
and  his  pathetic  voice  won  the  hearts 
of  the  young  girls  when  he  asked  to 
play  his  fiddle  for  some  supper,  and 
said,  "  Nobody  love  me ;  nobody  smile 
on  me."  The  eyes  of  the  girls  rilled  with 
tears ;  and  with  one  voice  they  begged 
to  take  the  little  waif  and  give  him 
some  supper.  I  said,  "  What  shall  we  do 
with  him  when  the  Fair  is  over  ?"  But 
the  appealing  eyes  of  the  child  and  the 
pleading  voices  of  the  young  girls  pre 
vailed  ;  and  we  took  him  in  and  placed 
him  upon  the  flower  table,  where  he 
was  reminded  of  his  own  beautiful  Italy, 
the  land  of  flowers  ;  and  the  notes  of 
his  little  fiddle  attracted  the  visitors, 
so  that  as  the  evening  wore  on  many 
friends  gathered  around  him ;  his  pock- 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  123 


ets  were  filled  with  pennies ;  and  his 
eyes  overflowed  with  joy.  But  the 
evening  wore  away,  and  the  flowers 
faded,  and  the  people  were  leaving  one 
by  one.  What  now  was  to  become  of 
the  child? 

It  was  decided  after  much  consulta 
tion  to  place  him  in  the  Orphan's 
Home  for  which  the  girls  were  work 
ing  ;  and  to  that  Home  on  the  following 
morning  little  Dino  (for  so  we  called 
him)  was  taken.  As  we  entered  the 
pleasant  Home,  Dino  took  a  deliberate 
look  around  the  sunny  room,  and  then 
thrust  his  little  brown  chubby  hand 
into  the  pocket  of  his  trousers,  and 
drew  forth  the  pennies  that  were 
snugly  tucked  away  in  their  depths, 
his  black  eyes  fairly  dancing  with  joy 
as  he  handed  them  to  the  superinten 
dent,  saying :  "  You  give  me  home ;  I 


124  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


give  you  my  pennies.  I  was  'fraid  I 
freeze  to  death."  Dino  remained  in 
the  Home  five  years,  the  delight  of  all 
the  household.  He  often  visited  "  The 
Old  Elms,"  and  reported  from  time 
to  time  progress  in  his  lessons,  and 
repeated  Scripture  texts  and  poetry 
which  he  thought  would  please  me. 
At  length  he  left  the  Home  and  took 
a  place  in  the  country  where  he  could 
go  to  school,  and  earn  his  own  living 
by  doing  the  chores  of  a  farmer.  After 
some  years  Dino  returned  to  "  The  Old 
Elms"  dressed  in  the  garb,  and  with 
the  manners,  of  a  gentleman.  He  had 
secured  a  situation  where  he  was  earn 
ing  good  wages  ;  and  he  said  modestly  : 
"  If  I  had  not  been  cared  for  as  I  was, 
and  instructed  in  that  Christian  Home, 
I  should  be  a  beggar  now,  as  I  was 
when  I  entered  the  Home."  Dino 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  125 


now  has  a  pleasant  home  of  his  own, 
with  a  wife  and  children  ;  and  he  adorns 
the  society  in  which  he  moves. 

The  young  girl  for  whom  it  was  done 
had  gone  from  Italy  beyond  our  care 
and  keeping  ;  and  the  little  child  had 
come  from  Italy  to  claim  our  love  and 
watchful  care. 

After  it  was  all  over,  Dr.  S.  F.  Smith 
sent  the  following  affectionate  tribute  : 

"  Is  thy  final  rest  more  peaceful, 

Is  thy  sleep  more  sweet,  dear  child? 
Brought  from  Rome's  gorgeous  sepulchres 

Back  to  thy  native  wild? 
Or  breathes  the  wind  more  gently 

Where  the  chestnut  and  the  pine 
Above  the  tomb  that  holds  thy  dust 

Their  clustering  branches  twine? 

Thy  footsteps  trod  the  pathway 

Of  grand,  historic  Rome, 
Thy  gaze  admiring  rested 

On  picture,  church,  and  dome. 


126  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


Why,  yearning  with  a  tender  love 

Did  thine  eyes  look  back  to  see 
The  elms  around  thy  cherished  home 

Where  thy  whole  soul  longed  to  be? 

Welcome  again,  fair  sleeper; 

Peace  to  thy  precious  dust ! 
Rest  calmly  with  thy  kindred 

Till  the  rising  of  the  just. 
The  winds  shall  sing  above  thee 

Where  the  chestnut  and  the  pine 
In  thy  own  dear  native  forests 

Their  clustering  branches  twine  !  " 

Winding  up  the  avenue  one  sum 
mer's  day  was  seen  a  motley  group  of 
women  and  children.  They  came  from 
the  attics  and  cellars  of  North  Street. 
Many  of  them  had  never  seen  the 
country  since  their  childhood,  and  had 
never  looked  at  the  blue  sky  except 
through  smoke  and  dust.  Every  face 
told  the  strange,  sad  story  of  empty, 
hopeless  lives,  of  struggles  and  fail- 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  127 


ures,  of  scanty  clothing  and  insuf 
ficient  food.  There  was  not  one  ex 
pression  of  hope  or  cheer.  It  was  in 
teresting  to  watch  their  varied  coun 
tenances.  Some  were  wildly  excited 
at  the  sight  of  green  grass  and  daisies 
and  buttercups,  and  were  almost  like 
caged  animals  let  loose ;  and  others 
seemed  awed  into  silence,  and  sitting 
down  under  the  elms,  their  sad  eyes 
wandered  over  the  meadows.  They 
looked  into  the  trees,  and  saw  the  shim 
mering  leaves  and  waving  branches, 
and  dreamed,  perhaps,  of  their  child 
hood's  home,  and  wondered  if  any 
thing  better  than  their  dark  cellars 
and  crowded  attics  would  ever  come 
to  them.  Many  of  them  said :  "  If 
heaven  is  anything  like  this,  I  should 
like  to  go  there."  One,  in  a  desperate 
tone,  exclaimed :  "  Christ  must  have  put 


128  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


it  into  yer  head  to  ask  us  here  ;  yer 
never  could  have  thought  of  it  yer- 
self ! " 

It  is  difficult  for  young  people  of  this 
generation  to  conceive  the  excitement 
that  prevailed  as  the  question  of  the 
abolition  of  slavery  grew  in  interest, 
and  penetrated  every  hamlet.  There 
was  not  a  man  or  woman  who  was  so 
ignorant  or  stupid  as  not  to  be  moved 
either  one  way  or  the  other  in  this  mat 
ter.  It  was  discussed  in  the  churches, 
in  the  post-office,  in  the  village  store,  in 
the  farmyards,  at  the  corners  of  the 
streets,  over  the  dish-washing  in  the 
kitchen ;  families  were  separated,  and 
friendships  broken ;  sons  were  alien 
ated  from  their  fathers,  and  churches 
broken  up  ;  people  on  both  sides  used 
the  most  severe  language ;  we  were  told 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  129 


by  a  lecturer  that  "  our  communion 
cloth  was  dripping  with  the  blood  of 
slaves." 

A  woman  appeared  one  day  who  said 
she  wished  to  see  me  alone  upon  very 
important  business.  Taking  her  into  a 
remote  corner,  and  closing  every  door 
behind  me,  she  informed  me  that  she 
had  in  her  house  a  runaway  slave,  a 
young  girl,  who  had  escaped  from  her 
master,  and  had  been  wandering  about 
through  forests  and  fields  for  many 
days.  Her  clothes,  she  said,  were  torn 
in  tatters  by  the  brambles  and  thorns 
through  which  she  had  made  her  way  ; 
her  shoes  were  almost  dropping  from 
her  feet ;  her  hair  was  a  mass  of  tan 
gles  ;  and  her  flesh  was  so  cut  and 
bruised  as  almost  to  bring  the  tears  to 
one's  eyes.  The  woman  told  me  that 
this  poor  girl  was  in  such  a  state  of  ner- 


130  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


vous  excitement  that  I  could  not  see 
her;  for  she  suspected  every  one,  and 
would  burst  into  tears  when  a  carriage 
passed  in  the  street,  thinking  her  mas 
ter  was  in  pursuit  of  her. 

The  woman  who  came  to  me  with 
this  strange  story  lived  in  a  remote  part 
of  the  town,  in  a  lonely  place,  and  I 
suggested  that  the  runaway  would  be 
safer  with  me  among  more  people. 

"Oh,  no,"  she  replied;  "I  wish  to 
take  her  away  to-night ;  and  knowing 
your  interest  in  the  slave,  I  have  come 
to  ask  you  to  give  me  a  suit  of  your 
husband's  clothes  that  I  may  dress  her 
in  man's  attire,  and  start  with  her  for 
Canada,  where  the  poor  creature  will  be 
safe  from  her  pursuers." 

Fired  with  excitement  and  interest,  I 
did  not  consider  the  plausibility  of  the 
woman's  story ;  but  gathered  together  a 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  131 


wardrobe  of  my  husband's  best  cloth 
ing,  —  coat,  trousers,  boots,  hat,  and 
everything  pertaining  to  a  man's  ward 
robe, —  and  taking  a  fast  horse  which 
nothing  would  have  induced  me  to 
use  on  any  less  important  occasion,  I 
drove  at  full  speed  to  the  hiding-place 
of  the  hunted  slave,  so  that  no  time 
might  be  lost  in  starting  her  for  Can 
ada,  the  only  place  of  safety. 

Reaching  the  house  where  the  object 
of  my  search  was  supposed  to  be  se 
creted,  I  was  told  that  I  could  not  see 
her,  for  she  would  go  into  hysterics  at 
the  sight  of  any  one.  I  believed  it  all ; 
and  turning  my  excited,  foam-flecked 
steed  toward  home,  I  must  have  reached 
there  just  about  the  time  my  informant, 
with  her  husband  dressed  in  a  fine  suit 
of  clothing  provided  for  the  runaway 
slave,  started  for  Canada  to  evade  the 


132  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


law  which  she  had  trampled  upon  by 
hiding  stolen  goods.  But  scenes  of 
real  flight  were  not  infrequent  during 
the  months  preceding  the  war,  and  we 
were  kept  in  a  state  of  constant  ex 
citement. 

Strange  footsteps  were  heard  on  the 
piazza  one  night,  just  as  we  were  retir 
ing  ;  and  upon  opening  the  door  we  be 
held  an  object  so  forlorn,  ragged,  filthy, 
and  black,  as  scarcely  to  resemble  a 
human  being,  —  a  negro  who  said  he 
had  come  for  a  night's  lodging.  We 
told  him  we  would  give  him  money  to 
pay  for  his  lodging  at  the  hotel ;  that 
we  did  not  take  lodgers.  "  But,"  he 
answered,  "  they  will  not  let  me  lodge 
there  ;  they  told  me  you  was  an  aboli 
tionist,  and  you  would  take  me."  We 
at  once  saw  the  joke,  and  knew  it  was 
being  played  upon  us  to  test  our  princi- 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  133 


pies  ;  so  we  said,  "  Come  in,  friend ;  we 
will  give  you  shelter." 

There  was  an  encampment  of  soldiers 
in  Readville,  eight  or  nine  miles  distant 
from  "  The  Old  Elms ; "  and  a  son  of 
one  of  our  neighbors,  who  had  been 
some  time  in  camp,  suddenly  died  there. 
He  was  brought  to  Newton  for  burial 
on  a  snowy,  dismal  day,  and  the  soldiers 
detailed  for  the  funeral  had  taken  that 
long  march  through  mud  and  slush ;  and 
when  they  entered  the  church  where 
the  service  was  held,  they  were  shiver 
ing  with  cold.  Nothing  had  been  pro 
vided  for  their  refreshment,  and  they 
were  faint  and  hungry. 

We  invited  them  to  go  to  "  The  Old 
Elms;"  and  a  warmer  welcome  no  com 
pany  ever  had  there  than  these  hundred 
tired,  foot-sore,  bedraggled,  mud-be- 


134  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


spattered  soldiers.  Everything  in  the 
house  that  could  be  eaten  was  brought 
out ;  hot  coffee  was  prepared,  and  blaz 
ing  fires  were  lighted  on  all  the  hearths  ; 
and  food  was  gathered  from  our  neigh 
bors  to  supplement  the  lack.  Thus 
warmed  and  fed,  they  tramped  back  to 
their  cheerless  tents  to  await  the  sum 
mons  to  go  to  the  battle-fields,  from 
which  many  of  them  never  returned. 

A  little  incident  in  the  experience  of 
the  dwellers  at  "The  Old  Elms"  is 
looked  back  upon  with  interest.  It 
shows  the  changed  condition  of  the 
country.  Having  some  business  con 
nections  with  a  house  in  a  Southern 

city,  Mr.  C found  it  necessary  to 

employ  a  slave,  there  being  no  other 
service  available.  When  the  master 
of  the  slave  came  for  the  wages  of  his 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  135 


"chattel,"  the  poor  slave  would  take 
to  the  cellar,  and  hide  behind  barrels 
until  his  master's  departure ;  and  then 
on  his  knees,  with  the  tears  stream 
ing  down  his  black  face,  he  would  beg 
his  employer  to  buy  him. 

This  went  on  for  a  while,  until  it 
could  be  endured  no  longer ;  and  the 
poor  fellow  was  bought  and  given  his 
liberty.  When  the  business  at  the 

South  was  given  up,  and  Mr.  C 

came  North  to  live,  he  was  "held  up  " 
for  the  Massachusetts  legislature  by 
the  so-called  Free-soil  party.  The  op 
posing  party  —  the  Whigs  —  felt  that 
the  State  would  be  in  peril  if  the 
Free-soiler  should  be  elected. 

Accordingly  on  the  day  of  election, 
horses  were  driven  from  one  end  of  the 
town  to  the  other,  until  they  were  white 
with  foam  ;  old  men  were  routed  from 


136  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


their  farms  and  out  of  their  beds ;  and 
every  one  who  could  cast  a  vote  was 
dragged  to  the  polls  to  prevent  the  dire 
calamity  of  having  a  man  elected  repre 
sentative  of  Massachusetts,  who  had 
owned  a  slave,  and  called  himself  a 
Free-soiler.  But  the  horses  ran  in  vain ; 
and  the  Free-soil  party  gained  the  vic 
tory.  The  State  survived  the  shock; 
and  Jack,  the  emancipated  slave,  lived  a 
happy  life  with  a  wife  and  baby  all  his 
own. 

The  memories  clustering  about  "  The 
Old  Elms "  are  for  the  most  part 
bright  and  glowing.  The  shadows 
only  serve  to  tone  the  picture  down, 
and  give  a  natural  relief.  Such,  for 
instance,  is  the  following  experience 
which  once  attended  our  annual  hejira 
from  the  city  to  the  country  house. 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  137 


We  always  affirmed  that  we  never 
moved  anything;  and  that  particular 
year,  as  my  husband  was  in  California, 
we  wished  to  make  the  moving  as  easy 
as  possible.  When  we  packed  up  the 
few  articles  that  we  felt  it  was  essen 
tial  to  take  with  us,  we  found  that 
they  filled  three  large  express  wagons 
to  their  utmost  capacity. 

We  covered  the  furniture,  closed  the 
blinds,  fastened  the  windows  and  doors, 
and  said  good-by  to  the  warm  and  dusty 
city  about  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
and  seated  ourselves  in  the  carriage,  so 
packed  with  bundles  and  band-boxes, 
pictures  and  vases,  clocks  and  orna 
ments,  and  many  little  articles  which 
could  not  be  trusted  to  other  hands, 
that  we  were  reminded  of  a  carriage- 
load  of  emigrants  en  route  from  the 
wharf  to  the  Western  prairies. 


138  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


Giving  the  driver  many  charges  to 
drive  in  such  a  way  as  to  keep  mirrors 
from  breaking  and  vases  from  tipping ; 

and   be    sure   not   to  bear  against  the 

• 
picture  which  had  been  placed  behind 

his  back  for  safety ;  and  by  no  means 
to  lose  the  basket  which  had  been 
placed  at  his  feet;  and  to  avoid  the 
stones  in  driving,  so  as  not  to  dis 
arrange  the  bandboxes  inside;  we  drew 
a  long  breath  of  relief,  and  started  on 
our  way. 

After  a  few  moments  I  was  suffi 
ciently  composed  to  fall  into  a  pleas 
ant  reverie :  Oh  !  what  a  delicious 
rest  awaits  me  in  that  quiet  country 
home,  where  the  grass  is  waving,  and 
the  birds  are  singing  their  sweetest 
spring  songs,  and  chirping  their  little 
housekeeping  affairs  so  lovingly  that 
the  very  sound  of  their  music  will  lull 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  139 


me  to  sleep  more  sweet  and  restful 
than  I  have  known  for  months  in  the 
noisy  city  ! 

Thus  we  dreamed  till  the  horses 
trotted  into  the  familiar  avenue,  and 
we  turned  our  tired  eyes  for  the  an 
ticipated  rest  —  when,  lo  and  behold  ! 
the  green  lawn  of  which  we  had  been 
fondly  dreaming  was  entirely  over 
flowed  with  the  swollen  brook,  and 
where  we  looked  for  greenness  we  be 
held  something  more  like  the  parade- 
ground  of  a  herd  of  swine. 

My  heart  sank  within  me.  I  called 
the  farmer,  and  asked  the  cause  of 
all  this,  and  was  informed  that  the 
late  heavy  rains  had  caused  the  brook 
to  overflow,  and  that  when  the  water 
had  evaporated  it  would  look  better. 
I  replied  :  — 

"  I  cannot  wait  for  this  process  ;  but 


140  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


I  wish  you  to  start  immediately  and 
engage  every  man  you  can  find,  and 
every  cart  and  horse  in  the  village, 
and  use  them  till  enough  gravel  and 
loam  have  been  drawn  to  fill  the  low 
ground  beyond  all  contingencies  of 
storm  and  rain,  and  then  have  the 
whole  turfed." 

"  But,"  said  the  farmer,  "  that  would 
take  a  great  deal  of  time,  and  more 
than  an  acre  of  turf,  besides  being 
a  very  great  expense." 

I  replied  :  "  If  it  takes  all  the  men 
in  town,  and  all  the  gravel  and  loam  off 
all  the  hills,  and  all  the  time  till  dooms 
day,  and  all  the  money  we  possess,  it 
must  be  done  now." 

Accordingly,  the  next  morning  a  line 
of  carts  and  horses  were  seen  wending 
their  unhurried  way  to  the  scene  of  my 
disappointment.  In  my  heart  I  spurred 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  141 


them  on  with  sharper  spurs  than  ever 
gallant  rider  used  upon  his  steed,  but 
to  little  purpose.  A  glance  upon  the 
upper  lawn  betrayed  to  me  the  fact 
that  the  prolonged  cold  weather  had 
so  far  kept  back  vegetation  that  there 
was  scarcely  an  appearance  of  green 
ness  anywhere.  The  grass  was  yet 
quite  brown.  In  order  to  stimulate 
the  growth,  I  told  the  gardener  to  use 
some  patent  fertilizer  which  my  hus 
band  had  purchased  of  a  travelling 
pedler  whose  business  it  was  to  de 
ceive  the  very  elect ;  accordingly,  the 
workmen  were  sent  to  sprinkle  the  dust 
over  the  reluctant  grass.  After  urging 
each  individual  spear  to  do  its  best,  and 
finding  it  heeded  neither  my  words  nor 
the  patent  fertilizer,  I  inquired  the 
cause,  and  was  told  that  wherever  the 
wonderful  patent  fertilizer  had  touched, 


142  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


it  had  burned  to  brownness  the  strug 
gling  grass. 

Just  here  I  took  a  long  breath,  and 
in  time  to  listen  to  the  call,  "What 
are  we  to  do,  mum  ?  The  hydraulics 
is  out  of  order,  and  the  cistern  is 
nearly  empty.  There  is  no  water  in 
the  stable.  The  plants  are  suffering 
in  the  greenhouse.  The  boiler  is  likely 
to  explode  in  the  house.  What  is  to 
be  done  ? " 

"  Go  at  once  for  the  plumbers,"  I 
said,  "  and  have  the  rams  attended  to." 

The  plumbers  arrive,  —  one  to  work, 
the  other  to  look  on  ;  and  after  two 
days  of  investigation  it  was  ascertained 
that  nobody  knew  what  was  the  matter, 
and  we  had  to  be  supplied  with  water 
by  carting  it  from  a  neighboring  brook. 
The  laundress,  on  being  told  that  she 
must  be  very  careful  of  the  water,  re- 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  143 


plied  :  "  Indeed,  mum,  I  have  not  used 
a  quart  of  water  for  all  me  washing 
to-day,  and  shure." 

As  the  shades  of  evening  gathered 
round  us,  we  thought  for  a  little  sea 
son  to  forget  the  outdoor  troubles.  We 
ordered  the  gas  lighted ;  and  with  a 
sigh  of  relief  took  up  the  evening  paper 
to  read  the  news  of  the  day,  when  all 
at  once  the  gas  began  to  dance  up 
and  down  with  a  jerk  and  a  twitch 
which  made  reading  quite  impossible. 

Only  one  resort  was  left  to  me ;  and 
I  retired  to  my  sleeping  apartment  to 
seek  repose  for  the  night.  Upon  open 
ing  the  door,  such  an  odor  met  my 
nasal  organs  that  I  was  obliged  to  re 
treat  forthwith.  At  dawn  of  day  a 
messenger  was  despatched  post-haste 
for  a  gas-man,  that  the  gas-pipes  might 
be  overhauled  ;  and  for  a  carpenter  to 


144  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


investigate  the  nauseous  odor  in  my 
room.  The  difficulty  was  so  deep- 
seated  that  it  was  found  necessary  to 
have  the  floor  removed.  Then  a  mason 
had  to  be  sent  for  to  remove  the  plas 
tering,  and  a  furnace-man  to  take  down 
the  flue  which  came  in  the  way. 

Three  separate  times  this  pleasant 
little  operation  was  performed  before 
the  cause  of  offence  was  discovered 
in  the  form  of  a  huge  rat,  who  had 
chosen  that  quiet  retreat  back  of  my 
closet  wall  to  breathe  out  his  life 
sweetly  there ;  sweet,  I  trust,  to  him, 
but,  alas  !  anything  but  sweet  to  me. 
When  this  was  over,  the  stableman 
came,  with  a  woe-begone  expression, 
saying,  "  One  of  the  horses  is  lame, 
mum.  What  is  to  be  done  ?  " 

"  Go  at  once,"  I  said,  "for  the  horse- 
doctor." 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  145 


This  important  personage  arrived ; 
and  after  a  long  and  learned  dis 
course  upon  the  nature  of  horse  dis 
eases  in  general,  and  of  the  lame  foot 
in  question,  told  me  that  a  carpen 
ter  must  prepare  a  box  for  the  horse 
to  stand  in.  Again  the  carpenter  was 
sent  for,  and  the  necessary  box  pre 
pared  ;  and,  as  I  was  obliged  to  visit 
the  horse  somewhat  frequently  to  see 
that  the  treatment  was  properly  ad 
ministered,  I  discovered  that  the  stable 
and  outbuildings  were  in  a  condition 
more  befitting  a  drunken  frontiersman 
than  a  respectable  gentleman's  country- 
seat.  I  stationed  myself  at  the  stable 
door,  and  delivered  an  oration,  the  pur 
port  of  which  was  that  those  cobwebs 
must  be  removed,  that  rubbish  dis 
posed  of,  and  the  stable  and  yard  made 
decent  at  once. 


146  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


A  day  or  two  later  I  discovered  that 
my  orders  had  not  been  heeded ;  and  I 
took  my  stand  in  the  barnyard,  and 
gave  my  personal  attention  to  the  re 
moval  of  the  cobwebs  and  the  rubbish 
in  general.  This  done,  it  seemed  neces- 
.,  sary  that  the  house  and  outbuilding 
should  be  painted.  Six  men  were  em 
ployed  two  weeks  in  this  operation ; 
and  when  it  was  within  two  days  of 
completion  the  painters  proposed  to 
take  a  little  vacation,  in  reply  to  which 
proposition  I  calmly  remarked:  "You 
will  finish  the  work  now,  or  take  your 
leave,  never  to  return.'' 

After  about  three  weeks  the  lawn 
and  the  water,  the  rams  and  the  gas- 
pipes,  the  stables  and  the  outhouses, 
the  flower-houses  and  the  graperies, 
the  cows  and  the  horses,  the  painters 
and  the  carpenters,  the  masons  and 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  147 


the  farmers,  the  gardeners  and  the 
laborers,  the  coachman  and  his  assis 
tant,  were  all  in  running  order,  except 
that  the  horses  were  suffering  for  want 
of  use.  And  on  a  fine  June  evening 
I  thought  I  would  take  a  little  drive 
for  the  purpose  of  exercising  one  of 
them. 

As  I  was  driving  down  the  mill  hill, 
with  a  strange  driver,  the  dancing,  pran 
cing  animal  slipped  off  his  whole  head 
dress,  bridle,  halter,  and  all ;  and  by  a 
far  more  rapid  movement  than  usual,  I 
found  myself  walking  double-quick  time 
toward  home,  leaving  the  man  and 
horse  to  follow  the  best  they  could. 
Indeed,  I  was  only  too  thankful  to 
escape  with  whole  bones. 

By  this  time  summer  guests  were  ex 
pected  ;  and,  wishing  my  place  to  pre 
sent  a  pleasant  appearance,  I  ordered 


148  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


the  walks  and  paths  put  in  order,  and 
the  trimming-scissors  and  lawn-mowers 
used  about  the  borders  and  around 
the  little  ponds.  As  I  looked  from 
my  window  to  see  if  the  work  was 
properly  done,  I  discovered  the  water 
of  the  pond  in  front  of  the  house, 
which  is  usually  clear  as  glass,  entirely 
covered  with  what  appeared  like  a 
green,  slimy  substance.  I  summoned 
the  gardener,  and  asked  for  an  ex 
planation. 

"  I  sent  a  man,"  he  said,  "  to  trim 
the  short  grass,  mum,  who  was  unac 
customed  to  the  work,  and  it  all  went 
onto  the  water." 

"Very  well,"  I  replied,  calmly  to 
all  appearance,  but  full  of  smothered 
wrath,  "  send  the  same  man  to  skim 
the  pond  until  every  spear  of  grass 
has  been  removed." 


Under  the  Old  Elms.  149 


I  had  set  my  heart  upon  offering 
some  very  nice  Jersey  butter  of  home 
make  to  my  guests.  I  sat  down  to 
the  table  with  a  complacent  air,  and 
offered  my  butter,  which  was  pleasing 
enough  to  the  eye,  but,  alas  !  as  bitter 
as  gall  to  the  taste ;  and  the  Jersey 
cream,  of  which  I  had  boasted,  curdled 
when  I  poured  the  coffee  upon  it,  as 
did  my  blood  at  the  sight  of  it.  Thus 
ended  the  first  month  of  my  country 
rest. 

The  years  that  have  gone  with  light 
est  touch  over  the  elms  have  weighed 
heavily  upon  many  of  those  who  were 
accustomed  to  gather  beneath  them  ; 
and,  one  by  one,  how  large  a  number  of 
these  have  passed  to  the  land  unseen  ! 
Yet  wherever  I  am,  I  have  only  to  close 
my  eyes  to  hear  again  the  murmur  of 


150  Under  the  Old  Elms. 


winds,  and  the  songs  of  birds  among 
their  boughs ;  and  to  see  once  more  on 
the  cool  piazzas  they  overspread,  or  in 
the  winding  walks  under  their  shade, 
the  faces  and  forms  of  the  friends  I  was 
wont  to  welcome  there,  or  of  the  occa 
sional  guests  whose  visits  lent  bright 
ness  to  the  days.  With  the  trees  are 
linked  hallowed  associations,  the  joys  of 
friendship,  the  charm  of  social  inter 
course  ;  and  while  life  lasts  these 
blended  memories  will  be  ineffaceable 
and  dear. 


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